Bonifacio Papers

2006-07-19T00:49:00.000-04:00

Corpuz, O. D. Excerpts from The Roots of the Filipino Nation, Vol. II. Quezon City: AKLAHI Foundation, Inc., 1989. 211-19, 243-55.

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The Original Katipunan

The 7 July decree deporting Rizal to "one of the Southern islands" also provided for stricter rules throughout the archipe-

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lago against the entry and circulation or possession of Rizal's writings, as well as of every manifesto or handbill "directly or indirectly attacking the Catholic religion or the national unity." A decree the next September dismissed a number of persons from government employment in Batangas, Binondo, and Pampanga and ordered the "enforced change of domicile" (euphemism for exile) of Doroteo Cortes and Ambrosio Salvador of Manila; Antonio Roxas of Bulacan; Mariano Alejandrino of Pampanga; Leon Apacible of Batangas; Jose Basa of Cavite; and Vicente Reyes of Laguna.

But the Katipunan was in no position to take action. Isabelo de los Reyes, who claims intimate knowledge of the origin and development of the Katipunan, wrote of its handful of founders that Jose Dizon was an employee in the Mint; Deodato Arellano was a clerk in the arsenal; Bonifacio was a warehouseman in a brick factory; and the others "clerks, assistants of the Secretaries, or clerks of courts. Among them there was not a single rich man, nor one of a learned profession...."

De los Reyes would conclude from the persons of its founders that the Katipunan was a plebeian society: "I have said, and I will repeat a thousand times, that the Katipunan was a plebeian society; that is certain." But this plebeian character was not the most important feature of the society at this time. What was important was its secret character, as reflected in its recruitment and organizational systems. The basic units were three-man cells, where only one man in each knew one man in the next cell. The result was that membership was very small and growth was very slow. This soon became evident, and the cell or triangle system was discarded and replaced by recruitment and organization on the basis of district councils, copied from Rizal's Liga.

Another innovation in the membership of the Katipunan was adopted at this time: admission of women to membership. This was consistent with the society's principle that women were "helpers and partners in the hardships of life." But there was a practical side to the matter, according to De los Reyes. The Katipuneros' wives were worried over their husbands' nightly absences; since the latter carried money, the women thought that their husbands were going out "for quite another purpose." So a women's chapter was set up; the Katipuneros' wives, daughters, or sisters became members. But if the men members were few,

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getting the women in only meant keeping the society's membership "within the family."

Aside from its secrecy, the society's growth was restricted in its early years by the character of its officers. Roman Basa and Arellano, the first two Supremos or heads of the Supreme Council of the Katipunan, belonged to fhe old propagandist group and were horrified by the entry of Bonifacio's plebeians into the Liga's rolls. This was a major reason for the slow growth of the Katipunan's membership during their terms as Supremo. This would also explain the long period of four years between the founding of the revolutionary Katipunan, back in July 1892, and the outbreak of the Revolution in August 1896, although there were other factors.

During this period the Katipunan never grew like wildfire. Valenzuela's Memoirs show how excruciatingly slow was its growth. Bonifacio's biographer Epifanio de los Santos cites Valenzuela as saying that over the period July to December 1892 there were only "30 members at the most." But Bonifacio was a dogged organizer. Over 1894 and 1895, with the Liga finally dissolved, he was able to work full-time on the Katipunan and patiently went into the pueblos.

Still, Valenzuela records that "according to Bonifacio, the Katipunan did not have over 300 members" from the night of its founding until 1896.

The society began to really grow after two events. The first was the recruitment of a remarkable young man in 1894; the second was Bonifacio's becoming Supremo in December 1895.

Emilio Jacinto joined the Katipunan in 1894; he was nineteen years old. He was born 15 December 1895 in Tondo, son of Mariano Jacinto, a small tradesman, and Josefa Dizon, midwife. Every account of Jacinto's life points to his valuable contributions to the Katipunan. He was the author of the primer, or Teachings, of the society, Bonifacio withdrawing his own version in recognition of Jacinto's superior expression. To Bonifacio, Jacinto (nom de guerre, "Pingkian") was the "soul of the society." In the Katipunan elections of 31 December 1895 Jacinto, only a pre-law student in the University of Santo Tomas, became fiscal or number two man on the Supreme Council. Bonifacio, Valenzuela, and Jacinto constituted the council's "Secret Chamber" and made all its important decisions.

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In April 1895 Bonifacio (nom de guerre, "Maypagasa") brought a band of Katipuneros into the Montalban hills, initiating some men of the area. Here in the Pamitinan cave the band assembled; their presence is evidenced by an inscription scratched in charcoal on the walls: "Viva la Independencia de Filipinas!" This was the Filipinos' first cry for liberty and independence.

This same year the Katipunan was picking up members in Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, and Cavite. A new leader was emerging south of Manila. Emilio Aguinaldo, six years younger than Bonifacio, became gobernadorcillo or municipal capitan of Cavite el Viejo (Kawit) in January 1895. He was as energetic as the Supremo; he became an apprentice Mason with the lodge "Pilar" in Imus on the day he took his oath as capitan. One day in March, with Santiago V. Alvarez of Noveleta, he crossed the bay to Manila. At 7 P.M., blindfolded, he was brought in a calesa to Binondo and underwent the Masonic style initiation rites of the Katipunan. He took the name "Magdalo" after the patron saint of his town Mary Magdalene. After the rites were over his blindfold was removed, and he met Andres Bonifacio, in whose house the ceremonies were held.

The December elections to the Katipunan council were held at night in the Bonifacio house on Zurbaran street in the district of Santa Gruz. Some 200 of the 300 members were present. The new element in the society's life was that, for the first time, it had a printing press. We do not know whose idea it was. It was a fortuitous development. Two Visayan sea divers who had worked for some years in Australia had come home. Francisco del Castillo and Candido Iban of Kalibo, Capiz joined the society upon their return this year. They had 1,000 pesos between them; they heard that the Katipunan needed a press; they bought one for 400 pesos from a shop on Carriedo street and turned it over to Bonifacio.

How the press lacked type faces for various letters and how Jacinto remedied the problem by buying or arranging to get the needed types from here and there; how the Katipunan paper was named KALAYAAN (Liberty; Independence); how Jacinto labored on the paper after classes, assisted by Ulpiano Fernandez, a printer of the Manila newspaper El Comercio and Faustino Duque, a student in Letran; how Bonifacio, Jacinto, and Valenzuela contributed the materials for the first issue; how they placed Del

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Pilar's name as editor, with Jacinto rewriting one of the former's editorials into Tagalog; how Yokohama was printed as the paper's place of publication; and how only the first issue of the paper could be distributed, are all told in Valenzuela's Memoirs. The 18 January 1896 number of KALAYAAN came out in March. Of the press run of 2,000 copies, Aguinaldo paid for 200 for his men in Cavite; Valenzuela paid for 100 for his province, Bulacan; and Bonifacio paid for 700 for Manila.⁴

The busy festival month of May, the season for the traditional pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo, was used by Bonifacio as cover for a meeting to which he had summoned all the leaders of the Katipunan town councils. The meeting was set for 3 May, a Sunday, the Virgin's fiesta. The Magdalo council of Cavite sent three delegates: Aguinaldo; Benigno Santi, school teacher of Kawit; and Raymundo Mata. The assembly point for delegates coming from south of Manila was the foot of the old suspension bridge of Quiapo (now Quezon Bridge); from here five river boats, each with at least ten men, rowed upriver as if going to Antipolo.

There were some sixty council heads who responded. They landed on the right bank of the Beata (an arm of the Pasig) and took an early supper at the place of the capitan Ramon Bernardo, and then returned to their boats and proceeded to Sapang Nabas. There was a constant drizzle, the clouds were dark, and since the meeting was expected to run into the next morning, the Pasig Katipuneros suggested that they move there, and the meeting was held in the house of Valentin Cruz, behind the
Pasig church.

Bonifacio presided. He had bad news. He told the assembly that the Katipunan was like a woman with child who had to deliver prematurely. This was because, he told them, "our secrecy has been broken," and the Spaniards were keeping them and their movements under close surveillance. In this situation, therefore, they had to decide whether or not to begin the Revolution. He was in favor of an immediate rising. Aguinaldo took the floor, and pointed out to the lack of weapons and preparations. He proposed that the day of the uprising be put off for a time when the chances of success were better. Bonifacio insisted that the issue was not weapons, but whether to fight or not. Santiago V. Alvarez (nom de guerre, "Apoy") of the Mag-

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diwang council of Noveleta reported that their president, Mariano Alvarez (nom de guerre, "Mainam"), wanted the assembly to consider the terrible consequences of the terror of 1872, which he himself had suffered.

Aguinaldo then moved that a decision be deferred until after they had obtained the counsel of Dr. Rizal (honorary president of the Katipunan, but without his knowledge) in Dapitan. The meeting received this suggestion favorably, and Bonifacio was constrained after a recess to name Dr. Valenzuela as the emissary to Dapitan. The meeting ended at 5 A.M.

This decision was the reason for Valenzuela's trip to Dapitan in June. Valenzuela reported to Rizal that the Katipunan membership was growing every day and that total membership had reached 30,000. This is almost surely overstated; other estimates, citing Valenzuela himself, range from 15,000 to a high 43,000.

In any case, the single issue of the KALAYAAN spread knowledge of the Katipunan widely and drew the common people into its membership. By March, hundreds were said to be joining nightly in the Manila area. The councils in the provinces of Morong, Cavite, Bulacan, and Nueva Ecija likewise grew, and the society appeared in the provinces of Pampanga, Batangas, and Laguna.

As membership increased, of course, the Katipunan was more and more exposed to inevitable discovery. The initiation of new members took place in night meetings. Most town fiestas in Filipinas were celebrated after the rice harvest, beginning around October; the, late fiesta months were April and May, when the first rains would begin in most of Luzon. From here on the nightly meetings, especially in the Manila area, would not have the cover of fiesta crowds. The masses of new members, full of revolutionary fervor and eager for action, had to be restrained.

Even the leadership aggravated the exposure of early May. This was an offshoot of Dr. Valenzuela's visit to Rizal in June. The latter had advised that efforts be made to get the support of the rich; otherwise, they would be the Revolution's "worst enemies." In any case, they must be neutralized. After Valenzuela returned to Manila he, Bonifacio, and Jacinto decided to send a Katipunan officer to approach a rich Filipino, with instructions to solicit a money contribution for the purchase of arms and

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ammunition. The latter, however, would have nothing to do with the Katipunan and threatened to denounce it to the authorities if he were molested.

As a result of this incident, the Secret Chamber decided to forge papers implicating "many rich and aristocratic Filipinos" as Katipunan organizers or members. The first of them was Francisco Roxas, the millionaire who refused to help; he was named in the false papers as president of the society. The incriminating papers evidently found their way into the authorities' hands; an October 1896 report by a Spanish officer refers to them as "rich proprietors" and despicable, "shameless filibusteros" who enjoyed high social position and benefited from Spain's protection. It must be said, however, that not one of the men who were falsely implicated betrayed the society to the authorities.

The Katipunan continued to grow in June and July, At this time when recruitment was going apace, some Katipunero councils would sponsor dances, beauty contests, and other festive gatherings to cover their meetings and spread propaganda among the people. The newfangled bicycles offered another ruse; the Katipunero recruiters took to them, cycling and recruiting outside
Manila.

And then, in mid-July, fate stepped in. All the workmen in the printing shop of the Diario de Manila, a Manila newspaper, were Katipuneros. Their foreman Apolonio de la Cruz was treasurer of the Maghiganti council in Tondo. The other foreman, named Patiño, in charge of supplies and equipment, was the only non-Katipunero; he was the protegé of the Spanish shop manager Lafon. Patiño was not a bad sort; it is almost certain that he knew that there was Katipunan material in the premises, but it was no business of his and he pretended to be deaf and blind. This was before Lafon told the men that a salary increase of from 14 pesos to 18 or 20 pesos a month was being considered for either Patiño or De la Cruz. The two were torn apart by rivalry. There was a near scuffle after a poison pen letter to Lafon charged Patiño with stealing supplies.

It was Saturday afternoon. Lafon dismissed the men, closed the plant, and left by calesa. Before 6 P.M. he was back with a lieutenant of the Veterana. They forced open De la Cruz' lockers and found paraphernalia of the Maghiganti council: a set of stamps, a primer, a list of members and membership oaths

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signed in blood, receipts, and ledgers of accounts of De la Cruz. That evening, at 10 P.M., police agents and the Veterana armed with copies of the membership list were searching the houses of the men. Those who were not arrested were hunted. Next day, Sunday, and through the weeks that followed the hunt continued. Wives thought to save their husbands and only made things worse by confessing to their curates.

The above account is by Santiago V. Alvarez. At least the date is confirmed by Aguinaldo in his memoirs when he records that the bad news of the discovery of the Katipunan reached them in Cavite in July.

Bonifacio had to go into hiding; many of the Katipuneros felt he had abandoned them. He would surface again in the last days of August, fail in battle, go to the hills, and reappear in Cavite, but it may be said that he had fulfilled his historic role. He is deservedly called the Father of the Revolution. Neither Rizal nor Lopez Jaena nor Aguinaldo nor any of the other notable Filipinos of the time earned that role. There were many tasks to be done, some of them were noble, most were undistinguished; the different tasks fell to different men. The noblest work of the time was the founding of the Kamahalmahala't Kagalanggalang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (Most Exalted and Most Respected Society of the Sons of the People). It was Bonifacio who founded it, and to it he gave his own selfless spirit and unbounded patriotism.

Bonifacio was born of Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro in Tondo on 30 November 1863. He is said to have been orphaned at age fourteen. He survived through non-ilustrado means of livelihood. His biographer De los Santos also calls him the Father of Philippine Democracy; it seems more proper to call him the Great Plebeian, as he is also often called. That he was well read in the literature of the Propaganda, on the lives of American presidents, on the Bible, on the French Revolution and similar materials, all on his own time, is not incompatible with his humble origins.

He became a Freemason, which we know was not generally open to the masses or commoners, but he was then already a leader among the patriots of Manila. His membership in the Masonic fraternity and in the revived Liga did not make him an ilustrado; indeed his bringing in of his own recruits into the

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revived Liga had given the latter a plebeian element. He came to be related by affinity to Mariano Alvarez, leader of the Magdiwang council in Noveleta, Cavite. This was from Bonifacio's marriage to Gregoria de Jesus, niece of Alvarez, when Bonifacio was already Katipunan head.

Neither did this circumstance make him an ilustrado: the key factor was wealth. He was a self-made man who had no inheritance; he received no allowances. And his family was not landed gentry, which was how all ilustrado families began. Bonifacio and Jacinto belonged to that politically volatile and often angry class, the ambitious urban poor that has improved itself but sees no hope in the existing regime.⁵

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The Execution of the Supremo

The fiasco of 29-30 August 1896 marked Bonifacio's fading out, for all practical purposes, from the military record of the Revolution. He took part in minor field actions until towards the end of the year. His return to the limelight in December involved him in the war-related politics in Cavite. This weakened the Revolution in the face of Polavieja's offensive, and the rebel setbacks in turn intensified the political rivalry, resulting in his death in May.

When Bonifacio escaped after August, the Katipunan councils in the Manila area were left leaderless. Weeks were spent tracking him. Loyalty to the Supremo led to the reforming of small bands, but they were all stragglers, and their activities were not much of a war. Once or twice he revisited his old base in Balara. But the capital area remained secure for the Spaniards. It was different in Cavite. The two leading Katipunan councils proclaimed themselves revolutionary governments. Aguinaldo's proclamation of 31 October was addressed to the Filipino nation. As a result of the victories of November, the Caviteños developed a deep sense in the righteousness and ultimate victory of the Revolution. They were elated, universally committed to the Katipunan and its teachings, and proud of their province. Cavite came to be known as "the Province of the Revolution." The enemy defeat and withdrawal were followed by a period of joy and peace. The Magdiwang Santiago V. Alvarez records:

All day and all night the dalagas kept their tindahan (small makeshift shops) open; there were singing, dances, picnics under the trees, gambling and cockfights right and left, distractions from the coming moment for sacrificing blood and life....

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During this period Cavite attracted a stream of refugee families and partisans of the Revolution from Manila and nearby provinces. Among the latter was Ramon Bernardo, the commander of the ill-fated Katipunan force that had awaited Bonifacio in vain in Santa Mesa all the night of Saturday, 29 August. He was received by the Magdiwang leaders, to whom he recounted what had befallen him since, including his efforts to locate Bonifacio. As a result of Bernardo's report, the Magdiwang looked for a man who knew the fields and hills and rivers of Morong Province, and directed him to search for the Supremo and deliver a letter from the Magdiwang chairman, Mariano
Alvarez. The search was successful.

According to Artemio Ricarte (nom de guerre, Vibora), an early Magdiwang general, Alvarez invited Bonifacio to visit "so that he might witness and examine the very difficult but satisfactory situation in which the Cavite Katipuneros found themselves." Bonifacio did not immediately accept the invitation, but a second and third were sent (Ricarte says he wrote the communications). In his replies, Bonifacio praised the successes of the Revolution in Cavite. He regretted that he had so far not captured a single town; he and his band were in remote hill bases. He looked forward to his visit to Cavite. But he did not intend to stay long there; and he said that when in Cavite he would not make any changes but would recognize and respect the Revolutionary Government and its policies and acts, because it was the authority that was uniting the people and promoting the teachings of the Katipunan.

Aguinaldo's memoirs record that the Revolution in Cavite had lost contact with Bonifacio and that nobody knew in "which corner of the districts and woods of Caloocan, San Mateo, and Montalban" the Supremo and his companions were resting. Search parties were sent to "the forests of Caloocan and Malabon." Blanco states that in late September Bonifacio had joined General Llanera, commander in Morong and Bulacan, and that the Llanera-Bonifacio force attacked the Morong cabecera on 6 October but was repulsed and retreated into the hills. Blanco regarded the force at this time as a minor target, reserving his main effort for Aguinaldo in Cavite. Blanco finally records that the Llanera-Bonifacio group received "severe punishment" in an early November action.

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In early December Bonifacio, accompanied by General Lucino de la Cruz (nom de guerre, "Ipo-ipo"), twenty men, his wife, and his two brothers Procopio and Ciriaco, arrived in Bacoor. The Father of the Revolution commanded no army. Bacoor, in northern Cavite, was a Magdalo town, proudly described by Aguinaldo as "the portal of freedom in Cavite." But the Magdiwang Santiago V. Alvarez says that Bonifacio arrived at dusk in Imus. The next day he received Aguinaldo, his cousin Baldomero, and Daniel Tirona, and the three accompanied him to Noveleta and then to San Francisco de Malabon, the new Magdiwang capital. Along the way and in the latter town the people welcomed the Supremo warmly.

In Aguinaldo's view, in December Cavite had been a liberated province for three months, and it had its "free and independent Revolutionary Government." He was referring to the government set up by his council, the Magdalo. But the true situation was not so simple. In fact there was not only another revolutionary government, but a rival government, that of the Magdiwang. Practically all the Cavite towns were under either the Magdalo or Magdiwang. Aguinaldo put it generously: "The successful fight for freedom in the entire province of Cavite against the Spanish regime was dut to the leadership and efforts of the two councils...."

The Magdiwang capital was originally in Noveleta, near Kawit the Magdalo base, but it was near the sea and subject to shelling by the enemy's gunboats, and the Magdiwang moved to San Francisco de Malabon. The other Magdiwang towns were: Santa Cruz de Malabon (Tanza), Rosario (Salinas), Naic, Ternate, Maragondon, Alfonso, Magallanes, Bailen, Indang, and San Roque. The Magdalo also moved their capital to Imus after the Magdiwang moved theirs. The other Magdalo towns were: Bacoor, Carmona, Silang, Dasmarinas, Amadeo, and Mendez Nunez. Although the Magdalo towns were less in number, they were as a whole more important than the Magdiwang towns, the most noteworthy of which were Noveleta, San Francisco de Malabon, and Indang.

We must understand the system of Katipunan councils. According to Ricarte, the councils in towns with few Katipunan members were Sangguniang balangay or local councils. But in towns or provinces where there were many Katipunan members,

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there was a Sangguniang bayan or provincial council.

Bonifacio went to Noveleta on Good Friday, April 1896 to officiate at the founding of the Magdiwang Sangguniang bayan. On the invitation of Aguinaldo he went that same afternoon to Kawit, for the purpose of founding the Magdalo council as well as witnessing the initiation of new Katipuneros. However, they could see flames from across the bay that evening, and Bonifacio had a premonition that his house in Manila was burning. (He was right.) The inauguration ceremonies did not go through. Soon afterward, Aguinaldo visited Mariano Alvarez in Noveleta to take up the matter of his council. He was told that the Magdalo could set up a Sangguniang balangay; as for a Sangguniang bayan, however, that could be done only with authorization from the Supremo. But this did not stop Aguinaldo; a few days later the Magdalo had a provincial council, presumably without sanction from Bonifacio.

The setting up by the Magdalo of a second provincial council, apparently without official Katipunan sanction and when there was already a sanctioned council, was something of an anomaly. Moreover, when the Magdiwang provincial council elevated itself on 31 August into a revolutionary government, the Magdalo also founded their revolutionary government.

At first the Caviteños did not mind it, and the victories won in November even led to the idea that the two governments, united in the common goal to fight the Revolution, was an advantage.

Bonifacio's arrival in Cavite, almost immediately followed by his partisan identification with the Magdiwang, made him a party in the rivalry. There were dark forces at work. After Christmas that year anti-Bonifacio gossip and poison pen letters were circulating, some saying that he had poor schooling. Daniel Tirona, a Magdalo, was suspected as one of the letter writers. One day, in San Francisco de Malabon, Bonifacio accosted Tirona about the letters; he aimed to shoot, but Mariano Alvarez saved Tirona.

On 29 December 1896, the two councils met at the old hacienda house in Imus in an effort to strengthen the Revolution through a settlement of their differences. The matter of uniting the two councils was taken up, but there was no agreement. The presiding officer was Bonifacio. Santiago V. Alvarez records that

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Bonifacio and Aguinaldo were trying to conceal the deepening animosity and widening rift between them, amidst rumors attacking each other's person and honor. And then, one evening in January, Aguinaldo and Mariano C. Trias (nom de guerre, "Labong"; Magdiwang officer who would defect to the Magdalo in February), and Bonifacio and his brother Procopio, each with a gun, were seen leaving the house of Mrs. Epifania Potente (Bonifacio's lodgings) in San Francisco de Malabon. The moon was full. They were seen to halt under a tree along a nearby street. Then they exchanged heated words and aimed their guns at each other. The timely arrival of S.V. Alvarez, who placed himself between the duelers, prevented a shootout.

Certainly it was fate. (It is still a truism in modern Philippine politics that no President of the Republic gains anything by interfering in contests between provincial political chieftains.) The
schism in the leadership of the Revolution in Cavite came at the worst possible time, because Polavieja was already preparing his great offensive.

The fall of the major Cavite towns one by one after the battle losses of mid-February further embittered the Aguinaldo-Bonifacio hostility in March, leading to the sad events of April and May.

It will be recalled that the 29 December 1896 meeting held in Imus to settle differences considered the matter of unifying the two factions. Unification would produce a common government, and the question of the constitution arose. Ricarte's memoirs record that in the view of the Magdiwang a constitution already existed, that of the Katipunan; while to the Magdalo the Katipunan was a secret society, and so its government and constitution had ceased upon the outbreak of the Revolution. On the government issue, the Magdiwang held that the Katipunan Supreme Council and provincial councils constituted an already functioning government. Aguinaldo claims that the Magdiwang were prepared to have elections for the officers of a new revolutionary government, but that they wanted the position of the head of government reserved for the Supremo. Aguinaldo adds that while the Magdalo had initiated the meeting, "the Supremo called the meeting to order and presided over it." There Were no minutes made of the proceedings of this meeting.

In April Bonifacio wrote Jacinto, telling him that "the enmity

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between the two factions" was "very great." But Bonifacio was not a neutral Supremo. When the enemy was taking the rebel towns, he wrote anew to say that General Malvar of Batangas was "a very intelligent man," and added that Malvar was "better perhaps, than the general we know here...," referring to Aguinaldo. Of the losses being suffered by the rebels, he suggested that they had been due to poor defense, or "without any struggle."

In truth, the Spaniards had overwhelming superiority in almost every material battle factor. Both Magdiwang and Magdalo fought gallantly and honorably, but they had been overrun. And a glance at the map will show that the Magdiwang towns were ensconced comfortably behind the Magdalo towns, with the latter having to bear the brunt of the enemy attack that would come from the north and from the east and south (Laguna and Batangas). Aguinaldo was correct in saying that the Magdiwang were "always very happy because the twelve towns under their control were peaceful, being located behind the Magdalo towns, which were always under fire." And:

We might say that the Magdiwang leaders were lucky, since from the beginning of the Revolution until April 1897 they figured in only one encounter..., unlike the Magdalo, who almost every day had a battle to fight and never had peace of mind.

During this time the relations between Aguinaldo and Bonifacio progressively deteriorated against a backdrop of losses of territory, both Magdiwang and Magdalo. Their perceptions of events began to be more and fnore critical of each other. But it was due to their humanity and sense of responsibility to the Revolution, not evil motive. The written record by AguinaJdo is lengthy and more detailed than Bonifacio's, and we present part of it only to show the deterioration of the warmth with which the former greeted the Supremo in December, when the Revolution was winning, into clear enmity in February, when the Magdalo were losing.

Aguinaldo claims that he had gone to Bonifacio three times, in late December, in January, and again in February, to ask for some troops from the Magdiwang against Polavieja's offensive. He says that he had to humble himself each time. Bonifacio refused, saying that he needed his own men. Aguinaldo ex-

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plained (he says) that the Magdiwang positions were to the rear Of the Magdalo lines, but to no avail. Then the major town of Silang fell. Aguinaldo went directly to two Magdiwang generals, Mariano Riego de Dios and Ricarte, for assistance in the retaking of the town. He says that they agreed to a three-pronged maneuver, which promised success, but that they did not appear at the agreed hour and the counterattack was aborted.

That was part of the fortunes of war. But March hit Aguinaldo with a personal tragedy. General Crispulo Aguinaldo, his elder brother, died in the defense of Imus fighting at Pasong Santol, near Dasmariñas, on 25 March. The battle for Imus had raged since 28 February. It was no consolation that the Spanish General Zabala, the conqueror of Dasmariñas, was a casually.
Aguinaldo says that the fall of Imus was due to Bonifacio's ordering Ricarte to intercept the Magdalo reenforcements for Pasong Santol, and concludes:

When I realized what the Supremo had done, I sighed and said to myself: "He wishes to destroy our Revolution." General Mariano Trias, in anger, recommended that the traitors be arrested. What did our country, aspiring for freedom, gain from that loathsome act and selfish purpose?

It was during the fighting and imminent fall of Imus, the Magdalo capital, that the assembly at Tejeros met on the 22nd March. Tejeros was in San Francisco de Malabon, the Magdiwang capital. Aguinaldo did not attend. He was fighting at Pasong Santol front. The day was his 28th birthday.

The meeting was called by Bonifacio to discuss the strengthening of the defense of Magdiwang territory, in view of the fall of many Magdalo towns to the enemy. Jacinto Lumbreras, secretary of the Magdiwang, initially presided. But the proceedings got out of hand, and Bonifacio took the chair. Ricarte was named secretary. His record covers the whole meeting, and our account is based on his memoirs supplemented by those of Santiago V. Alvarez, who was also present. Ricarte's record identifies many of the principals:

From the early hours of the day set for the assembly, the Hacienda Tejeros was filled not only by the chiefs of the Magdiwang jurisdiction but also with many of the Magdalo government. Among

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the leading Magdiwang men, besides the chief of the Katipunan, were the following: Mariano Alvarez, Pascual Alvarez, Santiago Alvarez, Luciano San Miguel, Mariano Trias Closas, Severino de las Alas, Santos Nocom, and among those of the Magdalo government were Baldomero Aguinaldo, Daniel Tirona, Cayetano Topacio, and Antonio Montenegro.

Lumbreras opened the proceedings by stating the announced purpose of the assembly. Severino de las Alas was recognized, and he said that before discussing the minor matter of the defense of a small piece of Cavite territory, the assembly should consider the major issue of what kind of government the country ought to have. Once this government was approved, he said, it could resolve what defense measures were required. Lumbreras and then Bonifacio explained by restating the Magdiwang position: that the Katipunan had a government and a constitution
(Alituntuning pinaiiral). Bonifacio said that the letter "K" in the middle of the Katipunan flag stood for "Kalayaan." De las Alas replied that neither the "K" nor the flag indicated whether the government was a monarchy or a republic. Bonifacio replied that the Katipunan was based on the equality of all; in the Katipunan government "The People rule the People," and therefore it was "rigidly republican."

There was uproar when Montenegro criticized the existing system. Order was restored. Lumbreras quit the chair because issues other than that announced in the call for the meeting were being taken up. Bonifacio took the chair, and the assembly shouted its approval.

He explained that the effect of the assembly's wish for a new government was to abolish the government that the Katipunan had established, and also to negate the decision adopted in Imus. But he respected their decision; this was because the assembly should be governed by the decision of the majority. Then the "Republica Filipina" (Santiago V. Alvarez memoirs) was proclaimed, and there was another round of approving cheers. The election of officers of the new government was next. Before proceeding to the election of officers, Bonifacio proposed: that the will of the majority be recognized so that, whoever was chosen, "whatever be his means of livelihood or degree of culture," so long as he was not a traitor to the Motherland, be recognized as elected. The assembly adopted this rule; there were shouts of:

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"That is how things should be -- Equality of all! Love of Country should prevail!"

The following were chosen by written ballot:

President: Emilio Aguinaldo, over Andres Bonifacio, Mariano Trias

Vice-President: Mariano Trias, over Andres Bonifacio, Severino de las Alas, Mariano Alvarez

Captain-General: Artemio Ricarte, over Santiago V. Alvarez

The nominations and ballot counting for the election of the president had taken one hour. Dusk was setting, and the assembly decided on viva voce election for the other offices, those voting for a candidate standing on one side while those against stood on the other. The following were elected:

Director of War: Emiliano R. de Dios, over Ariston Villanueva, Santiago V. Alvarez, Daniel Tirona

Director of Interior: Andres Bonifacio, over Mariano Alvarez, Pascual Alvarez (now de guerre, "Bagong Buhay")

The directors of State, Finance, Development, and Justice were not elected. Daniel Tirona contested Bonifacio's election on the ground that he was not a lawyer, and nominated Jose de Rosario. This was in violation of the rules, and Bonifacio was deeply hurt and angry. He demanded that Tirona retract what he had said, apologize to the assembly, and recognize its decisions. Tirona slunk into the crowd, and Bonifacio drew his revolver to shoot him, but Ricarte prevented him. Bonifacio then declared the assembly dissolved, ruled all its decisions null an of no effect, and walked out with his followers.

Santiago Rillo, the Katipunan delegate from Batangas, presided over the rump assembly. There were efforts toward reconciliation. The Magdiwang moved to the hacienda house in Naic. The Magdalo no longer had a town capital; some Magdalo leaders stayed on in San Francisco de Malabon after the meeting. On the night of 23 March in Tanza, Aguinaldo, Trias, and Riejo de Dios took their oaths to the posts they were elected to.

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Ricarte took his after midnight.

At the beginning of April Emilio and Baldomero Aguinaldo went to Naic and called on Bonifacio. One of the sore points that the latter held against the Magdalo at this time was the surrender of Tirona, a Magdalo, under the amnesty declared by Lachambre. Bonifacio and Aguinaldo exchanged views; the latter declared that he likewise condemned the surrender of Tirona and Cailles, at which S.V. Alvarez records that the two leaders embraced fraternally.

Aguinaldo's leadership was formalized a few days later. He had made conciliatory approaches to the other revolutionary generals, and after Easter Sunday he called for a meeting of the leaders at the hacienda house in Naic. This was the Magdiwang headquarters, and Bonifacio was holding office here! The meeting agreed on the founding of a new government. The latter installed itself in the Naic house. There were no elections. The officers were:

President Emilio Aguinaldo
Vice-President Mariano Trias
Director of the Interior Pascual Alvarez
Director of Finance Baldomero Aguinaldo
Director of Development Mariano Alvarez
Director of Justice Severino de las Alas
Director of War Emiliano Riego de Dios
Captain-General Artemio Ricarte

This new government is called the "Pamahalaan ng Sangkatagalugan" in Aguinaldo's memoirs. Bonifacio was isolated. There was a trooper posted at his door to intercept people going to see him. Within the week the new government required all troops, including the Magdiwang, to show papers issued by it as authority to carry guns. It also issued commissions to all military ranks; Magdiwang officers received theirs.

Bonifacio gathered his loyal followers, and with his wife and two brothers, retired to Halang, then Limbon, barrios of Indang. He had decided to leave Cavite and proceed to the Silangan hills in San Mateo, Morong. But he stayed in Limbon too long. Food ran short. He had his men go to the población for contributions, but they were turned away. When the men gave their report, Bonifacio felt betrayed and shouted: "Burn the

[253]

town! Spare no one!" He was heard by a passersby; that evening the news of Bonifacio's "orders" spread in the town. Many anti-Bonifacio reports reached Aguinaldo in Naic.

On Tuesday, 27 April, Aguinaldo issued orders to Colonel Agapito Bonzon, Felix Topacio, and Jose Ignacio Pawa to arrest Bonifacio and bring him to Naic. There was a fire fight with the government troops in Limbon early the next morning. Ciriaco Bonifacio died and Procopio was wounded. Bonzon fired at Bonifacio and hit his left arm. Pawa stabbed him at the right side of the neck, but was prevented from killing him.

Bonifacio was brought to Naic, a prisoner of the Pamahalaan ng Sangkatagalugan, the government of the Revolution. The pre-trial hearing was conducted by a board under Colonel Pantaleon Garcia. It heard witnesses from 29 April, receiving the testimony of Bonifacio and his wife on 4 May. It found cause for trial. The court-martial was convened the same day under the chairmanship of General Mariano Noriel. In the following day's session Jose Elises, the prosecutor, asked for the death penalty. Placido Martinez, Bonifacio's counsel, asked for clemency. Teodoro Gonzalez, Procopio's counsel, asked for acquittal.

The court-martial adjourned the same day, "in order to submit its decision within twenty-four hours." The next day it issued its verdict: death for the Bonifacio brothers. The decision went to Aguinaldo on 7 May. Baldomero Aguinaldo, as military assessor, endorsed the verdict, but left the final decision to Aguinaldo as commander-in-chief. Aguinaldo approved the court-martial findings but commuted the penalty to: indefinite exile (destierong walang taning) to an isolated place, with the prisoners under guard and incommunicado to each other and all other persons. It was the 8th May. The decision was issued under the letterhead of the: "Office of the President of the Sangkatagalugan and Commander-in-Chief of the Army."

How Aguinaldo's decision was not obeyed might never be fully explained. The Bonifacio brothers,were executed by a detail under Major Lazaro Makapagal in the woods of Mt. Buntis on 10 May.

The drama of the taking of Bonifacio's life began in Naic with the pre-trial hearing. But Naic was about to fall to the enemy, so the Pamahalaan moved to Maragondon. The court-Partial was held here, in a little nipa house. Before the month

[254]

ended Maragondon, too, would fall, to be followed shortly wl the towns of Alfonso, Mendez Nuñez, and Amadeo. In other words, the trial of Bonifacio was being held against the backdrop of a larger drama wherein the Pamahalaan, the Revolution was fighting for its own life.

The case against Bonifacio was sedition. The principal issues in the court-martial were: whether Bonifacio knew and recognized the existence of the Pamahalaan; whether he was authorized by the Pamahalaan to carry firearms, maintain an armed force, and take prisoners; whether the Bonifacio force had engaged and fired at government troops; whether they had resisted the arresting force, leading to the death of Ciriaco Bonifacio and two government men; and the like. The swiftness of the trial and issuance of the verdict was incidental. Bonifacio could not be acquitted. His only hope was clemency.

What he received was a show of clemency. Pascual Alvarez (as told by his cousin Santiago V. Alvarez), together with Aguinaldo and some men, was listening through the thin wall in the thatch hut where the court-martial was proceeding. He later said that he believed that Aguinaldo's commutation order would never be obeyed because he (Pascual) saw that "one of the plates hanging from the balance of justice was heavier than the other, weighted in favor of the need to do away with the Supremo...."

S.V. Alvarez, who was loyal to the end to Bonifacio, records a feeling and dignified memoir of the tragedy:

Caught in the typhoon that was Tejeros, the Supremo Bonifacio did not immediately make for port. It was only after he saw that no one wished to board and be at his side, and when his boat was slowly sinking, that he thought of shelter. He made for the fatal and rocky shoals of the barrio of Limbon in Indang, Cavite, as we have said in this account. A sad and bitter death, coming as it did at the hands of comrades, and not by the judgment of Justice, was the fruit of the pain and hardship, blood and life, that the Supremo Andres Bonifacio and other brethren had sacrificed at the altar of the Nation.

Events and his love for the Katipunan and the Revolution overrode Bonifacio's intentions of November 1896, when he had planned on a short Cavite visit and on not interfering in local affairs. Fate pushed him to join his life to the Caviteños, proud

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men who had won back their province from the enemy, to whom he had confessed that he had not taken a single town. He lost his life when his allies joined their old rivals. Divided by their successes, the Caviteños were reunited by their losses. Bonifacio was caught in the crisis that every revolution reaches, when there has to be a contest for leadership -- not for military preeminence, which is won through victory in the field, but for primacy in the politics of the revolution, wherein strength, shrewdness, and one's stars must settle the conflicting claims.¹¹

2006-07-18T04:19:00.000-04:00

Richardson, Jim. "Documents of the Katipunan: the Supreme Council, March 15, 1896". (May 2006).

Introduction

Transcribed below (in the original Tagalog, followed by an English translation) is a document of the Katipunan Supreme Council dated March 15, 1896. Written in a neat calligraphic script by Bonifacio himself, the document details the agenda and arrangements for a meeting to be held in Mandaluyong the following Sunday, March 22. Then still separated from Manila by open country, Mandaluyong was fast becoming a major centre of KKK activity, and by the outbreak of the revolution it had as many as fifteen separate Sangunian Balangay or local councils. The Spaniards rightly labelled the town an insurrecto stronghold -- a "baluarte del Katipunan".

The meeting on March 22 is to be a session of the "K.K." or Kataastaasang Kapisanan (Supreme Assembly), a body that comprised the members of the Kataastaasang Sangunian (Supreme Council) plus principal officers of the local councils.

Bonifacio and Jacinto signed the document as the president and secretary of the Supreme Council. Beneath their signatures is a list of topics for discussion at the meeting on March 22, and beneath that list fifteen other leading Katipuneros have signed their code names (some in cipher, some not) to confirm that they will attend the meeting.¹

Text

K x K x K x
Nx Mx Ax Nx Bx²

Kataastaasang Sangunian

-----------------

Sa mga Pinakakatawan sa Kx Kx³

       Minamahal na mga kapatid:

       Ayon sa lalung ikalalaki ng kaayusa't lakas ng Kx Kx Kx, itong Kx Sx sa mga pulong na ginawa ng ika 20 ng Febrerong nagdaan at ng ika 15 nito, ay nag pasiya nitong mga sumusunod:

       Una: Ang K. Kapisanan ay mag pupulong sa ika 22 ng buang umiiral sa bayan ng Vzlldzjxycllg.⁴

       Ikalawa: Ang lahat ng mga Pinakakatawang dito'y dadalo ay dadating sa ika pitong daguk ng bakal sa tansu ng umaga ng nasabing araw sa bahay ng kapatid na Maypagasa.

       Ikatlo: Ang hindi tumupad sa sinusundang pasiya at dumating na huli, ay lalapatan ng nauukol.

       Ikaapat: Ang mga kx dito'y dapat dumalo ay aambag ng mga-hati (2 rs.), at ang salaping ito ay gagamitin sa paglalakbay at sa mga ibang kakailanganin.

       Ikalima: Upang mapagkuro at mapaglining ang buong karampatan ay ipatatalastas ang mga kaunaunahang pag uusapan sa pulong na ito, na nasasaysay sa dakong huli nito.

       Tangapin ninyo ang aming mahigpit na yakap.

       Maynila ika 15 ng Marzo ng 1896

                                                                                                  Ang K. P.
                                                                                                  Vzypzgzsz⁵
       Ang K. Kal.
       Pnllknzll⁶

---- Mga bagay na pag uusapan ----

       Tungkol sa pagtatayo ng isang pulutong na tangi na siyang mamamahala sa mga pagsaklolo, sa mga Kx dapat saklolohan.

       Tungkol sa pagpapalabas ng isang Atasan limbag na siyang maituturing na Gaceta Oficial ng Katipunan.

       Tungkol sa revistang mangagaling sa Kaharian ng Japon.

       Tungkol sa Kapx na Dimas Ayaran sa katungkulang Mangagamot.

       Tungkol sa mga saklolo sa asawa ng namatay na Kapx na Jasmin.

       Tungkol sa nararapat na pag iingat sa mga pagpupulong pag hikayat at pagdadalisay.

       Tungkol sa mga tiwalag na sumusuko at nagbabalik.

Subiang⁷ Sbx [Illegible]
condicional K. Bxrgcs⁸
Bujzjzkzw⁹
Fnjñvnw¹⁰
Magiliw¹¹
Mabagsik¹²
Alakdan¹³
Maniangat¹⁴
Ilagan o caya isa sa manga kapatid
[Illegible]
Ñjngnll¹⁵
Vnpñjñt¹⁶
Macabuhay¹⁷
Tngnñsck¹⁸
Vntxncg19
Hininga²⁰

English translation

K x K x K x
Nx Mx Ax Nx Bx

Supreme Council

To the delegates to the [Supreme Assembly].

       Dear brothers:

       In order to further develop the organisation and strength of the K.K.K., this [Supreme Council] at meetings held on the 20th of February last and the 15th of the present month has resolved as follows:

       First: The [Supreme Assembly] will meet on the 22nd of the present month in the town of Mandaluyong.

       Second: All Representatives who will be attending this meeting should arrive on the morning of the said day at the house of brother Maypagasa at seven strikes of the iron on the copper.

       Third: Anyone who fails to conform with this decision and arrives late will have to pay the appropriate penalty.

       Fourth: The brothers who attend this meeting must bring along halves (2 reales), and this money will be used for transportation and other necessities.

       Fifth: In order that they can be considered properly and given their due importance, the first matters for discussion at this meeting will be as set out below.

       Receive our close embrace.

       Manila, 15 March 1896.

                                                                                                  The K. P.
                                                                                                  Maypagasa
       The K. Kal.
       Pingkian

Matters for discussion

       Regarding the establishment of a special fund for administering assistance to brothers who have to be given succour.

       Regarding the issue of printed Ordinances which would be like the Official Gazette of the Katipunan.

       Regarding the newspaper coming from the Empire of Japan.²¹

       Regarding the position of Bro. Dimas Ayaran as Physician.²²

       Regarding assistance to the widow of the late Bro. Jasmin.

       Regarding the pressing need to have meetings that are persuasive and clear.

       Regarding those who were expelled for giving up, and are now coming back.²³
[signatures]

Notes

¹So far as is known, the most recent elections to the Supreme Council had been held in December 1895. Andrés Bonifacio had been re-elected as president; Vicente Molina had been re-elected as treasurer; Emilio Jacinto and Pío Valenzuela had been elected respectively as secretary and fiscal; and Francisco Carreón, Aguedo del Rosario, Balbino Florentino, Hermenegildo Reyes, José Trinidad and Pantaleón Torres had been elected as the six kasanguni or councilors. Some of the other signatories of this document, however, also served on the Supreme Council at one time or another.
²Abbreviation of Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (Most Elevated and Esteemed Society of the Sons of the People). The exact spelling and hyphenation of the organization's Tagalog title differ from one source to another, and it is difficult to say which version is "correct", or was used most commonly, because the great majority of Katipunan documents, like this one, just employ the abbreviation "K.K.K."
³Abbreviation of Kataastaasang Kapisanan ("Supreme Assembly").
⁴Cipher for Mandaluyong.
⁵Abbreviation and cipher for "Ang Kataastaasang Pangulo – Maypagasa". Maypagasa (Hopeful) was the Katipunan name of Andrés Bonifacio, who probably lived on Calle Dulumbayan in Santa Cruz at this time and worked for Fressel y Cia, a German-owned tile and brick company.
⁶Abbreviation and cipher for "Ang Kataastaasang Kalihim – Pingkian". Pingkian (Flint) was the Katipunan name of Emilio Jacinto, who lived on Calle Magdalena in Trozo and was a pre-law student at the Universidad de Santo Tómas.
⁷Subiang (Splinter) was the Katipunan name of José Trinidad, who lived in the Palomar section of Tondo and was a clerk for the Tambunting pawnshop.
⁸Burgos was the Katipunan name of Geronimo Cristobal, presumably adopted in honour of Fr. José Burgos, the most renowned of the three priests executed by garrotte for alleged involvement in the Cavite mutiny of 1872. A corporal in the infantry, Cristobal was secretary of the Maluningning council.
⁹ "Bulalakaw (Meteor) was the Katipunan name of Pantaleón Torres, who lived on Calle San José, Trozo, and worked as a clerk at the Intendencia, the government treasury.
¹⁰Halimaw (Ferocious) was the Katipunan name of Alejandro Santiago, who worked as a clerk for a "fundación de chinos" and was president of the Katagalugan council. He lived on Calle Camba in Binondo.
¹¹Magiliw (Friendly) was the Katipunan name of Rogelio Borja, who worked as a mechanic in Mandaluyong and was secretary of the Macabuhay council in that town.
¹²Mabagsik (Savage) was the Katipunan name of Crispiniano Agustines, who was fiscal of the Juaran council in Polo, Bulacan. Polo was the hometown of KKK Supreme Councilor Pío Valenzuela, who was absent from this meeting, and it is possible that Agustines was attending on his behalf.
¹³Alakdan (Scorpion) was the Katipunan name of Guillermo Masangkay, who worked for a Chinese commercial company. He lived in the Palomar area of Tondo and was president of the Silanganan council. He wrote the letter K in his pseudonym in the form of the "Ka" symbol from the pre-Hispanic baybayin script. The same symbol was the emblem of the Katipunan, as drawn by Bonifacio at the head of this document.
¹⁴Maniangat (Raised) was the Katipunan name of Vicente Molina, who worked as a caretaker or janitor at the Intendencia.
¹⁵Ilagan (Dodge) was the Katipunan name of Rafael Gutierrez, who worked as a foreman for the waterworks and was president of the Mahiganti council.
¹⁶Mapilit (Insistent) was the Katipunan name of Adriano Jesus, who was a cloth manufacturer (dueño de telares) in Malabon and president of the Dimahipo council in that town.
¹⁷Macabuhay (Resurrection) was the Katipunan name of Enrique Pacheco, who worked as a clerk for the civil government and lived on Calle Sande, Tondo.
¹⁸Tagaisok (Native of Isok -- a barrio of Boac, Marinduque) was the Katipunan name of Aguedo del Rosario, who was an encuadernador (binder) at the printing press of the Diario de Manila.
¹⁹Matunog (Resonant) was the Katipunan name of Salustiano Cruz, who worked as a postal clerk and was secretary of the Katagalugan council. He lived on Calle Zaragoza, Tondo.
²⁰Hininga (Breath) was the Katipunan name of Cipriano Pacheco, who worked as a customs clerk and was president of the Pagtibayin council. He was the son of Enrique Pacheco, and also lived on Calle Sande in Tondo.
²¹The Katipunan newspaper Kalayaan, which was then just about to come off the press, announced on its masthead that it emanated from Yokohama, and presumably this pretence was maintained internally within the organization as a security precaution.
²²Dimas Ayaran (Untouchable) was the Katipunan name of Pío Valenzuela, who lived on Calle de Lavezares in San Nicolas and had recently graduated as a licenciado in medicine from the Universidad de Santo Tómas. When contributing to Kalayaan he used a different pseudonym, Madlangaway (Public affray).
²³This translation is uncertain, because the original Tagalog could either mean that those returning to the Katipunan had been formally expelled, or that they had simply "separated themselves" from the organisation by lapsing into inactivity.

2006-07-10T02:08:00.000-04:00

Richardson, Jim. "Andrés Bonifacio in Cavite, February 13, 1897". (March 29, 2006).

Introduction

Transcribed below (in the original Tagalog, followed by an English translation) is a previously unpublished letter that Bonifacio wrote on February 13, 1897 to Julio Nakpil, the president of the Katipunan government in the "Northern District", the region to the north and east of the capital.

This brings the total number of known "Bonifacio letters" to nine -- four to Emilio Jacinto, two to Mariano Alvarez, two (1, 2) to Julio Nakpil and one to the High Military Council in the Northern District. In date order, they are as follows:

To the High Military Council in the Northern District, December 12, 1896.
To Mariano Alvarez, January 2, 1897.
To Julio Nakpil, February 13, 1897.
To Emilio Jacinto, March 8, 1897.
To Emilio Jacinto, undated but probably about March 16, 1897.
To Emilio Jacinto, April 16, 1897.
To Emilio Jacinto, April 24, 1897.
To Julio Nakpil, April 24, 1897.
To Mariano Alvarez, April 27, 1897.

Readers of this website will be aware that the provenance of some of the letters has been contested, but the balance of probability now is that most are authentic.¹ Aside from its significance as an addition to the still slender corpus of Bonifacio’s known writings, the letter transcribed here is interesting mainly for its references to Fr Antonio Piernavieja, a Spanish friar then being held captive by Katipunan forces.

Fr Antonio Piernavieja

The bald chronology of Piernavieja's life is recorded in a directory compiled from the archives of his order, the Augustinians. A native of the small Castilian town of Rueda, he took his vows in Valladolid in 1853 and was sent to the Philippines in 1855. For more than three decades he served as a cura párroco in the province of Bulacan, assigned at various times in the towns of Paombong, San Rafael and San Miguel de Mayumo. Relieved of parish duties in 1891 due to his advancing years, he lived for a time in Augustinian convents and then was appointed in 1895 as chaplain to the casa-hacienda of Buenavista in the town of San Francisco de Malabon, Cavite.²

But beyond these spare details there lies an astonishing story. In the 1880s Piernavieja became a figure of great notoriety, the epitome, for anti-clericals, of the cruel and abusive Spanish friar. Rizal even mentions him in a footnote in Noli me tangere. It is not known, says Rizal, whether any Franciscan friar was ever guilty of a crime like the murder of Crispin (a poor boy in the novel who earned a few paltry coppers ringing the church bells), "but something similar is related of the Augustinian P. Piernavieja."³ The tragic tale of Crispin is said to have been translated from the Noli by Marcelo H. del Pilar and circulated as a propaganda leaflet in the Tagalog provinces, giving still wider currency to the belief that it was based on a real occurrence in a Bulacan parish "where Fr Antonio Piernavieja had charge of the souls".⁴ Word spread, too, that Piernavieja had committed another murder, his second victim an elderly woman servant. John Foreman, a long-time British resident of Manila, heard these stories and accepted them as fact. Even though the public voice could not then be raised very loudly against the priests, he wrote, the scandal was so great that "the criminal friar" had to be removed from his parish.⁵ Piernavieja’s consignment to convent life in 1891, therefore, may not have been due to his age after all. He was still in his fifties.

After withdrawing from the public eye for about four years, in any event, Piernavieja was deemed still fit for the ministry and was assigned to San Francisco de Malabon. The truth about what then happened is just as irrecoverable today as the truth about his alleged crimes. Some accounts say that after the area was liberated from Spanish control in September 1896 he was forced into acting as the "mock bishop" of revolutionary Cavite. To save his life he accepted this indignity, but then used his freedom to collect information about the movements, plans and strongholds of the Katipunan forces for passing on to his order and the Spanish authorities.⁶

The letter transcribed here indicates that in mid-February 1897 Piernavieja was being held prisoner, but that Bonifacio would be prepared to authorise his release if a suitably large ransom could be negotiated. No agreement was reached, however, and Piernavieja was put on trial together with two other Augustinians and a Recoleto before a Katipunan court. Accounts again differ as to the nature of the charges. The case against Piernavieja presumably included his attempts to pass information to the enemy, but the prosecution may also have raised the deaths of the boy and the old woman in Bulacan, and also older political allegations against him. In the wake of the Cavite mutiny of 1872, it was said, he had identified many prominent liberals and subversives in Bulacan to the authorities and had thereby been instrumental in despatching them into long exile.⁷ Prior to their trial, moreover, Piernavieja and his co-accused were reportedly coerced into confessing to the corporate culpability of the Spanish friar orders for the execution of Gomez, Burgos and Zamora in 1872 and of Rizal in 1896.⁸

Found guilty by the court, the three Augustinians and the Recoleto were sentenced to death and in March 1897 were executed near the town of Maragondon. According both to the revolutionary general Artemio Ricarte and to the official Augustinian records, Piernavieja, like the others, was shot. But the facts about his death, as about his life, got submerged by legend and rumour. A number of sources relate that he was tied to a post or tree and left in the tropical sun to die of heat and thirst.⁹

The executions deepened the enmity between the two Katipunan factions in Cavite, the Magdiwang headed by Andres Bonifacio and Mariano Alvarez and the Magdalo headed by Emilio Aguinaldo. The tribunal that imposed the death penalty is said by Ricarte to have been appointed by Bonifacio acting on the authority of the Magdiwang Council en banc, and the sentence was carried out by Magdiwang troops. Aguinaldo says in his memoirs that he wrote to Bonifacio urging that two of the accused (not Piernavieja) be treated leniently because they had not committed any serious crimes, but that his intervention was to no avail.¹⁰ After the executions he is said to have angrily denounced Bonifacio and the others responsible as "crueles" and atheists.¹¹ So far as Bonifacio was concerned, that accusation was false, and if it was indeed made it must be seen as part of Aguinaldo’s campaign to swing public opinion against the Katipunan Supremo. In reality, both Bonifacio and Aguinaldo were under pain of excommunication from the Catholic Church because they were Masons, but as Masons they both professed to abhor atheism. "The doors of Masonry," stipulated the code to which the Philippine lodges of the time subscribed, "will never open to an atheist or to those who deny the existence of the Supreme Creator."¹² Like other Katipuneros, as the example here shows, Bonifacio signed off his letters with the wish that the recipient should remain safe in the care of the Lord (Maykapal).

The Himno Nacional

Bonifacio mentions in his letter that he has received a copy of the Himno Nacional that Nakpil had sent. Julio Nakpil later recalled that he composed this piece -- also known as the Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan -- at the request of Bonifacio when they were encamped with Katipunan troops in the vicinity of Balara in November 1896. He remembered the hymn still being played in Cavite and Laguna in 1898, but as the history textbooks tell Aguinaldo then chose as the national anthem the composition by Julian Felipe originally titled the Marcha Filipina Magdalo. In 1903 Nakpil reworked his Marangal na Dalit as a tribute to Rizal under the title Salve, Patria, but the only surviving copies of the original score were destroyed in 1945 during the battle for Manila. The version of Marangal na Dalit we have today was reconstructed by Nakpil from memory when he was in his eighties.¹³ The form chosen by Nakpil, the dalit, was traditionally a sung prayer or supplication, and his hymn, as readers may hear, is very solemn, almost mournful.¹⁴ To lift the spirits, it is good to listen to a different piece by Nakpil that is also highly evocative of those revolutionary times, the lively pasa-doble militar entitled Pasig Pantayanin.¹⁵

Text

The Tagalog text of this letter bears accents, but these have been omitted here due to the difficulties of rendering them in electronic format. Paragraph numbers do not appear in the original, and have been inserted simply to facilitate comparison between the Tagalog original and the English translation.

The text is as follows:

Sa Kap.^.. na M. Julio Nakpil Guiliw, Pangulo ng M. na Sangunian sa bayan ng Pasig.

1.
Guiliw kong kapatid: tinangap ko po rito ang iniyong kalatas gawa ng ika 30 ng Enerong nagdaan, at sa pagkatanto ng doo’y iniyong saad, ay ang tugon ko’y ang sumusunod.

2.
Ako po ay tumangap ng sulat niniyo na dalawang veces na at aking sinagot naman, nguni’t ang di malaman ay kun tinangap niniyo, baga man aquing ipinaaalaala na ang sagot ng huli ay saloob na ng buang ito.

3.
Kalakip ng kalatas niniyo na sinasagot ko, na dumating sa akin ng ika [blank] ng lumalakad, ay tinangap ko ang Himno Nacional at susundin ang tanging hiling sainiyo ukol dito.

4.
Ang Fraileng si Antonio Piernavieja ay mabute at kalakip na ipinadadala ko sa iniyo upang gawin ang nararapat, ang sulat ng nasabing Fraile sa kaniyang anak na ibinabalita ang kaniyang kalagayan at tuloy sinasabi na siya ang may nasa na maabuloy sa atin. Ayon dito sa abuloy na ito at sa sabi niniyo na ang anak na iyan ay ayos sa atin at makaabuloy ng halagang $1000; sa akala ko ay makahihingi tayo ng $5000 -- limang libong piso, sapagka sa balita ko ay may kualtang marame na hindi niya lubos ipagdadamdam ang halagang ito; kaya ka yo ang bahalang tumapon. Masasahe niniyo tuloy sa anak niya ang kaniyang amo ay hindi mapapatay na at dili naman pahihirapan, sapagka ipinagutos ko na taga ingat ng bilanguan na huag na siyang papagtrabahuhin.

5.
Ako ay lubos nagagalak sa balita inyo tungkol sa kay Grl. Francisco de los Santos, at kun kayo ay susulat sa kaniya ay masabi niniyo ang aking sa kaniya ay pagpupuri.¹⁶

6.
Mangyare po lamang na kun ano man ang mangyare sa sulat ni Piernavieja sa kanyang anak, ay malaman ko agad.

7.
Ako po at ilang mga taga rian ay may panukala na lumagay sa bayang Bakood at ng malapit dian sa atin at ang isapa ay ng doon magawa ang mga paggagayak ng mga kakailanganin sa paguwi namin dian na ito ay di malalaon, sapagka talastas ko na malaking lubha ang kailangan na tayo ay magkapipisan dian.¹⁷

8.
Ingatan kayong lahat dian ng Maykapal; at tangapin ang yakap na ipinahahatid namin.

Malabon, ika 13 ng Febrero ng 1897.

Ang K. Pangulo

And.^.. Bonifacio
Maypagasa

English translation

To Brother Mr Julio Nakpil, Guiliw, President of the High Council in the town of Pasig.

1.
My brother Guiliw: I have received here your letter written on 30th January last, and, having understood what you say in it, my reply is as follows.

2.
I received your [earlier?] letter twice already, and have also replied, but what I don’t know is whether you received it, although I have reminded you to reply to it within the present month.

3.
Together with your letter to which I am now replying, which reached me on the [blank] of the present month, I received the National Hymn and I will comply with the special request that has been made to you in this regard.

4.
The friar Antonio Piernavieja is well, and together with this I am sending you, so that you can do what is necessary, the letter of the said friar to his son giving news of his current situation and going on to say that he has the desire to give us a contribution. In relation to this donation, and to what you said about the son settling with us to contribute the amount of $1,000: in my opinion we could ask for $5,000 -- five thousand pesos, because my information is that they have lots of money and this amount would not totally overwhelm them; so it is up to you to agree. Then you can go ahead and tell the son that his father will not be killed, nor even suffer hardship, because I have instructed the guards of the prison that he should not be made to work.

5.
I am overjoyed by your news about Grl. Francisco de los Santos, and if you are going to write to him could you tell him that I applaud him.

6.
Whatever happens in relation to the letter of Piernavieja to his son, please can I know as soon as possible.

7.
Myself and some people from there have a plan to position ourselves in the town of Bakood so that we are nearer to there, and one other thing is that it will not take long there for the necessary preparations to be made for our return home, because I appreciate very gravely the need for us to group together there.

8.
May the Lord take care of you all there; and accept the embrace that we send.

Malabon, February 13, 1897

The Supreme President

And.^.. Bonifacio
Maypagasa

Notes

¹ The letter to the High Military Council has not yet been published, but it is intended that a transcription and English translation will be posted on this website soon. Facsimiles of the letters to Emilio Jacinto dated March 8, April 16 and April 24 are interleaved in Adrian E. Cristobal, The Tragedy of the Revolution (Makati City: Studio 5 Publishing Inc., 1997), pp.146-7. Tagalog versions of the two letters to Mariano Alvarez and the four letters to Emilio Jacinto are reproduced in The Writings and Trial of Andres Bonifacio, translated by Teodoro A. Agoncillo with the collaboration of S. V. Epistola (Manila: Antonio J. Villegas; Manila Bonifacio Centennial Commission; University of the Philippines, 1963), pp.82-91. For reasons already discussed in the posting on this website that reproduces Bonifacio’s letter to Nakpil dated April 24, 1897, the Tagalog texts of the letters to Jacinto published by Agoncillo and Epistola are substantially different in language (but not meaning) from the facsimiles reproduced by Cristobal. The Tagalog texts of the letters to Alvarez published by Agoncillo and Epistola are the same as those published by José P. Santos in his Si Andrés Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan (Manila: n.pub, 1935), pp.25-6. Agoncillo and Epistola’s English translations of the four letters to Jacinto and the two to Alvarez are posted in the "Documents" section of this website.
² Gregorio de Santiago Vela, Ensayo de una biblioteca Ibero-Americana del Orden de San Agustin, vol. 6 (Madrid: Imp. del Asilo de Huérfanos del Sagrado Corazon de Jesús, 1922), p.313.
³ José Rizal, Noli me tangere: novela tagala (Manila: Instituto Naciónal de Historia, 1978), p.79. This is an offset of the first edition, as published in Berlin by the Berliner Buchdruckerei-Actien-Gesellschaft in 1887. Many other editions omit Rizal’s footnotes.
⁴ Epifanio de los Santos, "Marcelo H. del Pilar", Philippine Review, 5:9 (September 1920), p.587.
⁵ John Foreman, The Philippine Islands, Second edition (London: S. Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., 1899), p.219.
⁶ José M. del Castillo y Jiménez, El Katipunan ó El Filibusterismo en Filipinas (Madrid: Imp. del Asilo de Huérfanos del Sagrado Corazon de Jesús, 1897), p. 347.
⁷ Telesforo Canseco, "Historia de la insurrección Filipina en Cavite", in Pedro S. de Achutegui SJ and Miguel A. Bernad SJ, Aguinaldo and the Revolution of 1896: a documentary history (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila, 1972), pp.335-41.
⁸ Artemio Ricarte, Memoirs (Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1963), p.12; La Democracia, July 12 and 14, 1906, cited in Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson (eds.), The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, vol.52 (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1907), pp.192-3; Martin F. Venago, Ang mga paring Pilipino sa kasaysayan ng Inang Bayan (Maynila: n.pub, 1929), pp.7; 41-2.
⁹ Vital Fité, Las desdichas de la patria: politicos y frailes (Madrid: Imprenta de Enrique Fojas, 1899), p.79; Castillo y Jimenez, El Katipunan, p.347; Foreman, The Philippine Islands, p.219.
¹⁰ Emilio Aguinaldo, Mga Gunita ng Himagsikan (Manila: Cristina Aguinaldo Suntay, 1964), p.156.
¹¹ Ricarte, Memoirs, p.12; Canseco, "Historia", p.340; Personal communication from John N. Schumacher SJ, January 2, 2006.
¹² Reynold S. Fajardo, The Brethren: Masons in the struggle for Philippine independence (Manila: Enrique L. Locsin and the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines, 1998), p.106.
¹³ Julio Nakpil and the Philippine Revolution, with the autobiography of Gregoria de Jesus, edited and translated by Encarnación Alzona (Manila: Heirs of Julio Nakpil, 1964), pp.90-2; 137.
¹⁴ "Himno Nacional (1896)" http://www.geocities.com/valkyrie47no/himno.htm (10 July 2006)
¹⁵ "Pasig Pantayanin, Pasa-doble Militar (Military March) by Julio Nakpil, June 17, 1897" http://www.geocities.com/valkyrie47no/pantayan.htm (10 July 2006)
¹⁶ Francisco de los Santos is one of the countless heroes of the Katipunan about whom the historical record is virtually silent. He was appointed as a general by Bonifacio soon after the outbreak of the revolution, and subsequently was involved in the fighting in and around the municipality of San Mateo. He also served as a general in the second phase of the revolution, and in 1901 the Americans deported him to Guam together with Apolinario Mabini, Artemio Ricarte and other intransigents. Artemio Ricarte, Himagsikan nang manga Pilipino laban sa Kastila (Yokohama: "Karihan Café", 1927), p.132.
¹⁷ At this juncture Bonifacio had been in Cavite for less than two months, but he is already expressing the desire to return "there", meaning to where Nakpil is, probably in the vicinity of Pasig or San Mateo. He was still making preparations to return in late April 1897, just prior to his arrest, trial and execution, and the reasons why he fatally kept deferring his journey are not clear.

2006-02-05T15:24:00.000-05:00

Richardson, Jim. "Notes on Kalayaan, the Katipunan paper" (November 30, 2005).

Introduction

The rapid growth of the Katipunan in the months immediately prior to August 1896 is often attributed in large part to the circulation of the first and only issue of its paper, Kalayaan. Unfortunately, no copy of the paper has yet been located, and with three signal exceptions –- the poem "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" and the articles "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" and "Pahayag" –- its incendiary contents are little known.

This piece recapitulates what has been written so far about the paper; details (in the endnotes) where various versions of items from Kalayaan have been published to date; and reproduces, for the first time, Tagalog versions (with English translations) of a substantial section of its lead editorial -- "Sa mga Kababayan" -- and an article entitled "Katuiran din naman!" It also reproduces a Tagalog version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" that differs (though not greatly) from those published hitherto. The piece is part of a "work in progress" that I intend to submit for publication in due course, and any corrections or comments will be most welcome.

Sources

Except where specified otherwise, the information on Kalayaan in this piece is derived from six key sources: (i) Wenceslao E. Retana (comp.), Archivo del bibliófilo filipino, vol.III (Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de M. Minuesa de los Rios, 1897); pp.132-48; (ii) Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Andrés Bonifacio y el "Katipunan" (Manila: Libreria "Manila Filatelica", 1911); (iii) Epifanio de los Santos, "Andrés Bonifacio" [in Spanish], Revista Filipina, II:11 (November 1917), pp.59-82, which was translated into English by Gregorio Nieva and published in Philippine Review, III:1-2 (January-February 1918), pp.34-58; (iv) Epifanio de los Santos, "Emilio Jacinto", Philippine Review, III:6 (June 1918), pp.412-30; (v) José P. Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan (Manila: n.pub, 1935); and (vi) the various recollections of Pio Valenzuela, especially his "Memoirs" (translated by Luis Serrano from an unpublished manuscript in Tagalog (c.1914) and reproduced as Appendix A in Minutes of the Katipunan (Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1964), pp.91-109, and his conversations with Teodoro A. Agoncillo for the latter’s The Revolt of the Masses: the story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1956).

This website includes links to the above-mentioned works on Bonifacio by Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Epifanio de los Santos and José P. Santos as made available online in the section entitled "The United States and its Territories – 1870-1925: the Age of Imperialism" within the University of Michigan Digital Library.

Production of the paper

Prior to 1896, it seems, the Katipunan did not publish any propaganda materials. The association apparently did have a printing press¹, but its capacity was low, and the extensive or protracted use of any other press, it may be presumed, was feared to run too high a risk of betrayal and discovery. A few documents, such as membership forms and the sheets bearing the questions initiates had to answer ("¿Ano ang kalagayan nitong Katagalugan nang unang panahun?", etc.) were reportedly printed clandestinely on the presses of the Spanish daily Diario de Manila, but these were small in size and limited in quantity. In 1895, however, a press was purchased for the Katipunan by two members from Kalibo, Francisco del Castillo and Candido Iban, who had recently returned to the Philippines after working as shell and pearl divers in Australia and had some money from a lottery win. They bought the press and a small quantity of type from Antonio Salazar’s "Bazar El Cisne" on Calle Carriedo, and Del Castillo transported it to the house of Andrés Bonifacio in the Santa Cruz district of Manila. On December 31, 1895, according to Valenzuela, a meeting was held at Bonifacio’s house for the purpose of electing the members of the new Supreme Council of the Katipunan. Bonifacio was re-elected as Pangulo (President), Emilio Jacinto was elected Kalihim (Secretary) and he, Valenzuela, was elected Taga-usig (Fiscal). The following day, Valenzuela continues, he told Bonifacio that he would accept this position "on condition that he would give me the printing press of the Katipunan, which he had in his house, so that I could direct and edit a monthly review, which was to be the organ of the Katipunan." Bonifacio agreed, and in mid-January 1896 the press was transferred to Valenzuela’s residence on Calle de Lavezares in San Nicolas. To assist with the actual printing, Valenzuela recruited two of his town mates from Polo, Bulacan -- Ulpiano Fernandez, who earned his living as a printer with the paper El Comercio, and Faustino Duque, a student at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran.

After making these arrangements, however, Valenzuela very soon decided that he "had no time to take charge of the printing" because of his commitments as a physician and a Katipunan organizer. Nor, apparently, did he retain much of his "directing" role. Responsibility both for producing and for editing Kalayaan then passed to Emilio Jacinto, who went to the house on Lavezares after his pre-law classes at the Universidad de Santo Tómas. On the production side, the main problem was a shortage of type. Wishing to compose the paper in accord with the new Tagalog orthography that disdainful Spaniards called "Germanized" ("alemanizada"), the printers lacked in particular the letters "k" and "w", and also "h", "y" and the common vowels. Jacinto was obliged to ask his mother, Josefa Dizon, for P20 so that he could buy type from Isabelo de los Reyes, who owned a printing press, and Valenzuela bought and begged some more from employees of the press of the Diario de Manila. Even then, Valenzuela recalls, there was only enough type to set one page at a time, and the laborious process of setting all eight pages took two months to complete. Though dated January 1896 on its masthead, the paper did not finally appear until about the middle of March.

Valenzuela states that 2,000 copies were printed, but Epifanio de los Santos puts the figure at just 1,000, of which 700 were distributed by Andrés Bonifacio in Manila and the surrounding towns, 200 in Cavite by Emilio Aguinaldo and the other 100 by Pio Valenzuela in Bulacan.

Significance

Prior to the paper coming out, Valenzuela remarks, the Katipunan’s membership had reached only about 300 in four years, but after Kalayaan began to circulate the association attracted new thousands of new adherents. By the outbreak of the revolution in August 1896, he estimates, it had 20,000 or even 30,000 members.²

Nobody knew the exact membership figures, of course, and nobody today can weigh the impact of Kalayaan against other eventualities that added to the gathering momentum of the Katipunan in the early months of 1896 – more vigorous and open recruitment; more frequent meetings in Manila and beyond; and the consequent fact that the Spanish authorities, well before the "discovery" of the association by Padre Mariano Gil of Tondo in mid-August, had tightened their surveillance and persecution of suspected "filibusteros" and thereby provoked a further escalation of bitterness and anger. The crackdown, it is said, led Bonifacio to warn branch leaders as early as May that the KKK’s secrecy had been broken, and that the association now found itself like a pregnant woman forced by circumstances to deliver before her time was due.³

But whatever the true measure of Kalayaan’s contribution to this swelling tide of events, the paper has its own intrinsic importance. Not only was it the first publication of the Katipunan prior to August 1896, it was also the last. Produced and circulated on the brink of the revolution, its pages, and its pages alone, carried in print the message of liberty the three top-ranking leaders of the Katipunan –- Bonifacio, Jacinto and Valenzuela –- wanted the bayan to hear and to heed.

Physical appearance

Judging from Valenzuela’s recollections, the pages of Kalayaan measured about 9 inches across and 12 inches tall, slightly larger than the A4 paper size of today. As just mentioned, his memoirs state unequivocally that there were eight pages. In a contemporary article in Heraldo de Madrid, Wenceslao Retana indicates there were thirty-two pages, but given the length of the known contributions this seems most unlikely.⁴ It might be speculated that Retana had not seen the paper himself, but had deduced from despatches from Manila that eight sheets of paper, each folded in the centre and printed on both sides, would carry thirty-two sides of text.

Most of the text was in font size 12, with a lesser amount in size 10.

Contents

Title: Pio Valenzuela claims it was he who chose the title Kalayaan. This term had only gained currency in a political context since Marcelo H. del Pilar employed it to render the Spanish word "libertad" when he translated José Rizal’s essay "El Amor Patrio" for the Manila paper Diariong Tagalog in 1882.⁵ Rizal himself had subsequently used "kalayaan" to render the French "liberté" when he translated the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen", the famous document approved by the National Assembly of France in August 1789.⁶

Masthead: Printed in Tagalog beneath the banner title, in a smaller typeface, was the following:

"Issued at the end of each month.
Year 1 –- Yokohama, January 1896 –- No.1

Subscription price –- half a peso for three months. To be paid in advance. If purchased, 2 reales per issue.
Submissions must be signed by their authors.

The news, as far as it can be told."

Pio Valenzuela claims credit, too, for Yokohama being put on the masthead as the place of publication and for the impression being given that Marcelo H. del Pilar was the editor of the paper. Whether Del Pilar’s name was actually printed is not clear, but the lead editorial purported to be his message of greeting and solidarity to his compatriots, sent from afar. According to Retana, Governor General Ramón Blanco at first believed that the "nuevo papel filibustero" had indeed emanated from Yokohama, and wanted to send an envoy, Alfredo Villeta, to Japan to investigate. Blanco abandoned the idea, however, when asked to authorise a budget for the mission of 800 pesos over three months.

The price for copies bought individually –- 2 reales –- was equivalent to 25 centavos. Readers who paid in advance for three months, it was intended, should get a fifty per cent discount.

Articles

I. Lead editorial - "Sa mga Kababayan" [Unsigned] ⁷

Attributed by Artigas y Cuerva to Andrés Bonifacio and Pio Valenzuela, but attributed by Valenzuela himself to Emilio Jacinto. "I wrote the first editorial and handed it to Emilio Jacinto for publication in the first issue", Valenzuela writes, [but when] he "showed me the proof of the first page [I saw to my surprise] that the printed editorial was not the one I had given him but another by Marcelo H. del Pilar in La Solidaridad," the organ of the propaganda movement in Spain that had ceased publication in 1895. This editorial, Valenzuela continues, "was translated into Tagalog by Jacinto, and was much better than the one I had prepared. I told Jacinto that I almost believed that the real editor of [Kalayaan] was Del Pilar himself. There were various Bulaqueños who knew the Tagalog of Del Pilar, and they declared the language used by Jacinto in his translation resembled Del Pilar’s perfectly." In his conversations many years later with Agoncillo, Valenzuela varied this account slightly, recollecting that Jacinto based "Sa mga Kababayan" not on a single editorial by Del Pilar but on extracts from more than one.

In the piece, "Del Pilar" sends his salutations, laments that Spain had scorned La Solidaridad’s patient supplications, and urges his compatriots now to support the cause of Kalayaan and take charge of their own destiny.

A draft of the first two-thirds of this editorial (with an English translation) is reproduced below as Document A. The remaining three paragraphs have not yet been located in Tagalog, but to give at least an indication of how the piece concluded they are translated into English here from the Spanish translation published by Retana in 1897.

II. "Pahayag" [signed Dimas Ilaw]⁸

Attributed by Pio Valenzuela to Emilio Jacinto. A patriotic youth describes the misfortunes of his country to an apparition of Liberty. She tells him that only those who are willing to die for her are worthy of her.

Valenzuela recollects that in writing the piece Jacinto took inspiration from a book called Las Ruinas de Palmira. This was a Spanish edition of Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires by the French philosophe Constantin-François de Volney. Published in 1791, Volney’s work became a late Enlightenment classic, and in various translations remained influential throughout the 19th century. It made a great impression on Abraham Lincoln, and Andrés Bonifacio reportedly had a personal copy that he donated to the Katipunan’s small library. Aside from reflecting upon the pretensions and transience of empires, Volney’s discourse affirms the equality of men before the law, advocates the overthrow of tyranny, and argues that in matters of religion the truth cannot be known beyond the law of nature, by which God governs the universe.

III. "¿Katuiran din naman?" [signed Madlangaway]

Attributed by Pio Valenzuela to himself. It relates "the cruelty perpetrated by the priest of San Francisco del Monte and the Guardia Civil against a poor barrio lieutenant."

A draft of this article (with an English translation) is reproduced below as Document B.

IV. "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" [signed Agap-Ito Bagum-bayan]⁹

Attributed by Artigas y Cuerva and Pio Valenzuela to Andrés Bonifacio. The Tagalogs, this well known work declares, have supported and sustained "the race of Legazpi" for 300 years, but have been rewarded with treachery, "false beliefs" and dishonour. "To eyes long blind", the light of reason has now unveiled this harsh injustice and revealed the separate, self-reliant road the Tagalogs must take.

V. "Pagibig sa Tinibuang Bayan" [signed A.B. or A.I.B.]¹⁰

Attributed by Pio Valenzuela to Andrés Bonifacio. This celebrated paean to patriotism calls upon the people to rise up and rescue the unhappy motherland from her torment.

A draft of this poem is reproduced below as Document C.

VI. "Balita" [Unsigned]

Described by Teodoro Agoncillo as "a sprinkling of news items"; the text is yet to be located.

VII. Other articles?

In his Archivo, Retana lists only the six items listed above. In his article in the Spanish daily Heraldo de Madrid, however, he seems to allude to two further pieces. One contribution to Kalayaan, he writes, condemns the religious ideas taught by the friars as nothing but myths, and the churches as places of idolatry and greed. Another piece, says Retana, salutes the Cuban revolt against Spain and the victory of Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5. Japan is hailed as a nation to be admired and emulated.¹¹ None of these topics is treated in the Kalayaan texts yet located, so unless they were carried as news items under the heading "Balita" there were presumably other contributions. Pio Valenzuela, similarly, remembers there being an article by Emilio Jacinto in Kalayaan "urging the Filipino people to revolt as the only recourse to secure liberty", a description that likewise does not fit any of the known items.

Texts

The Tagalog versions of "Sa mga Kababayan", "Katuiran din naman!" and "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" reproduced below have been transcribed (with difficulty) from three separate handwritten documents. In each case, it appears that the handwriting is not that of the person to whom the piece is most commonly ascribed. "Sa mga Kababayan", usually attributed to Emilio Jacinto, is identified in a file note as being in the handwriting of Andrés Bonifacio. Conversely, a note on the front page of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", which is usually attributed to Andres Bonifacio, indicates that the text is in the handwriting of Emilio Jacinto. Signed by sometime KKK Supreme Council member Valentin Diaz, the note reads "Letra de Emilio Jacinto segun manifiesta Aguedo del Rosario" –- Aguedo del Rosario being another KKK Supreme Council member. Both these identifications are seemingly corroborated if the documents are compared with others known to have been penned by Bonifacio and Jacinto. "Katuiran din naman!", meanwhile, which Valenzuela claims to have authored, also appears to be in Jacinto’s handwriting.

But the identities of the respective penmen, of course, do not necessarily correspond with the identities of the respective authors. The editorial "Sa mga Kababayan" is unsigned, but beneath "Katuiran din naman!" appears the pseudonym "Madlangaway", which Valenzuela said was his, and beneath the poem are the initials "A.B.", suggesting Andrés Bonifacio. It is entirely plausible that the texts were copied, one by Bonifacio and two by Jacinto, whilst Kalayaan was being prepared for publication, perhaps for editing purposes and perhaps to make them more legible for the printers.

It is unlikely that these versions are either the ‘original’ first drafts or the "final" texts that actually appeared in print. Most probably, in other words, there were earlier drafts, and almost certainly there were later amendments. What can be said, however, is that the Tagalog version of "Sa mga Kababayan" reproduced below does correspond very substantially with the Spanish translation published by Retana in 1897, and that the Tagalog version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" does correspond substantially with the Tagalog version first published by José P. Santos in 1935. Since the text of "Katuiran din naman!" has not previously been published in any language, we have no basis for comparison.

The version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" therefore enables a little more to be said in response to the questions raised by Glenn May in Inventing a Hero. In that book, May calls into serious doubt the scholarship of José P. Santos, and specifically questions the provenance of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" and other texts whose authorship Santos ascribes to Bonifacio. These texts, May writes, "do not deserve the respect that historians have given them over the years."¹²

It is now clear that the Tagalog text of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan" published by Santos was not crafted or reconstructed to any significant degree by him or anyone else in the 20th century. It is, substantially, the text that was published in Kalayaan in 1896. This, it might be contended, makes it more likely that Santos also had to hand an authentic version of "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" dating from 1896. But in response to these points, for sure, Glenn May would say that his doubts and questions were legitimate, that other "Bonifacio" documents remain suspect, and that we still cannot be sure that "Pagibig sa Tinibuang Bayan" and "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" were indeed authored by Bonifacio.¹³ On this last point, it can only be remarked that Pio Valenzuela was certainly in a position to know who wrote these two pieces, and that there is no obvious reason why he should pretend it was Bonifacio if it was not.

The original Tagalog texts bear accents in accordance with the conventions of the time, but these have been omitted here due to the difficulties of rendering them in electronic format, particularly the double-width tilde over the word and sound "ng". Examples of other diacritics consistently employed by Bonifacio and Jacinto include acute accents over the second "a" in words like "anak" and "agad"; circumflexes over the "i" in "di"; and grave accents over the "o" in words like "puso" and "hibo". Words that are difficult to decipher are followed by a question mark in square brackets –- [?] –- and round brackets –- (!!) –- are as found in the originals. Paragraph and verse numbers do not appear in the originals, and have been inserted simply to facilitate comparison between the Tagalog and English texts of the two articles and, in the case of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", comparison with other versions.

Document A

Sa mga Kababayan

1.
Buhat dito sa kabila ng malawak na dagat, sa sinapupunan at pagkakandili ng ibang lupa at ibang mga kautusan, sa inyo mga kababayan ang tungo ng aming unang bati, ang kaunaunahang salita na iguhit ng aming kamay, ang unang himutok na pumulas sa aming dibdib, ang unang pag bigkas ng aming mga labi…sa lahat ay sa inyo.

2.
Inyo ngang tangapin, at masarapin tunay ng inyong kalooban, sa pagkat nagbubuhat sa tapat naming puso, na wala nang iba pang itinitibok kung di isang matinding pag ibig sa tinubuang Bayan at tunay na pag daramdam sa pagkaapi at inaabot nyang kadustaan.

3.
Kapagkarakang narinig ng aming mga tainga ang inyong mga pag daing, kapagkarakang mapag malas ng aming mga mata ang inyong pagkaaping walang makatulad at mabangis na kahirapan, agad nang nukal na kusa sa aming kalooban ang isang banal at dakilang nasa, na kayo’y maibangon sa pagkalugmok at pukawin ang inyong puso sa pagkahimbing at malusong pagkagupiling o maampat kaya ang matinding dagok ng sakit at kalumbayang inyong tinitiis.

4.
Tunay na kami ay umasa din, gaya ng makapal na mga kababayan na nagakala na ang inang Espana ay siyang tanging may karapatang mag bigay ng kaginhawahan nitong Katagalugan. Nguni’t ang panahung lumipas, ang patung patung na pag ulol ang walang pangitang silo ng daya na sa aking isinumang, ang mga pangakung hindi tinutupad, ay siyang omuntag [?] sa aming payapang at katiwalang kalooban at nag pakilalang tayo’y siyang gumawa at may yaman at umiasa’t antain sa ating lakas na sarili ikabubuhay.

5.
¿Ano pa ang inaantay at hinahangad? Tatlong daang taung mahigit na pag titiis sa bigat ng pamatok ng pagkaalipin, malaung panahung wala tayong ginawa kungdi ang lumuhogluhog at humingi sa kanila ng kahit gabuhit na pag lingap at kaunting paglingon, gayon ma’y ¿ano ang nakikita nating isinasagut at iginaganti sa ating pag mamakaawa? Wala kung di ang tayo’y itapun isadlak sa lalung kamatayan.

6.
Pitong taung walang tigil na ang "La Solidaridad" ay kusang nagpumilit na iniubos ang buong lakas niya, upang tamuhin natin ang mga matamo ng kaunting karapatan sa kabuhayan ng tao, at ¿ano ang inabot niyang pala sa mga pagud at panahung ginugol? Pangako, daya, alipusta at mapait na pagkamatay....

7.
Ngayong hapu na ang ating nag taas na kamay sa laging pag luhog; ngayong na namamaus na’t unti unting na wala ang sigaw ng ating mapanghan na tingig sa laging pag daing, ngayong inaagaw na halus ang ating hininga sa bangis ng hirap, aming itinayu ang yukong ulong a gawi na sa pag suko, at kumuhang lakas sa matibay na pananalig namin sa tunay na katuiran, na maimulat ang kaisipan ng aming mga kababayan at maipakitang malinaw sa kanila na ang salitang Inang Espana ay isang pag limang at hibo lamang, na maitutulad, sa basahang pangbalut sa tanikalang kaladkad; walang ina’t walang anak; wala kung di isang lahing lumulupig at isang lahing palulupig, isang bayang nagtatamasa at nabubusog sa di niya pagud at isang bayang nagpapagud sa di niya pinakikinabangan at ikinabubusog.

To the Compatriots

1.
From here on the other side of the wide ocean, under the bosom and protection of another land and other laws, to you, compatriots, is sent our first greeting, the first word written by our hand, the first sigh that leaves our breast, the first enunciation, too, of our lips... everything is to you.

2.
Receive it then, and truly savour it in your being, because it comes from our sincere heart, which beats with nothing but an intense love for the native land and a true compassion for her in the oppression she suffers.

3.
Readily our ears can hear your complaints; readily our eyes so often have the misfortune to see your singular oppression and cruel hardship; immediately and spontaneously there springs in our soul a great and exalted desire that you may rise up from your prostration and rouse your hearts from their deep and restful slumber, and thus bring to an end the heavy blows of pain and your woeful tribulations.

4.
Truly we also hoped, as a great number of compatriots believed, that only mother Spain has the right to give prosperity to this Katagalugan. But time passes; the follies accumulate, the faceless web of deceit that I repudiate, the unfulfilled promises have shattered our peaceful and trusting nature and made us realise that we must be the ones to act and create wealth and that we must hope and wait on our own strength to achieve our welfare.¹⁴

5.
What else is to be expected and desired? Over three hundred years suffering the heavy yoke of slavery, yet for a long time we did nothing but beseech and ask them for just a little consideration and a little mercy. And then what answers were seen in response to our supplications and pitifulness? None, except that we were sent into exile or even to our deaths.

6.
For seven years La Solidaridad worked incessantly and exhausted its whole strength in order that we might achieve some modest right to a human existence. And yet what was the result of the expended time and effort? Promises, deceit, scorn and bitter death....

7.
Now we are weary of raising our hands aloft in constant supplication; now the cry of our mournful voice in constant complaint is gradually ceasing; and now our breath has almost been taken away from us by the cruelty of our suffering; we raise our bowed heads, accustomed to being submissive, and drawing strength from our firm belief in true reason, we can open the minds of our fellow countrymen and show them clearly that the phrase Mother Spain is only a distraction and deceit that can be compared to a rag wrapped around encumbering shackles; that there is no mother and no child; that there is nothing else than a race that oppresses and a race that is oppressed; a people that tirelessly enriches and satiates itself and a people that is tired of deprivation and hunger.
____________________________________________

From this point onwards, the Tagalog text has not been located. The remainder of the editorial, as published in Spanish translation in Retana’s Archivo, was many years ago translated in turn into English by my father, Geoffrey Walter Richardson, and is as follows:

8.
Too well we know that this must cause great misgivings and fears, must give rise to a cruel persecution and all kinds of torments and sufferings for our compatriots there. But what do one, or five, or ten, or a hundred, signify in comparison with a million brothers? We firmly believe, moreover, that these abominations and vilenesses will come to us first from the arms of collaborators, as was already predicted by the wisest, most noble and most esteemed of the Tagalogs [José Rizal] when they notified him of the arrest of those who were exiled: "Weep, I tell them -- the son for the disgrace of the father, the father for the disgrace of the son, the brother for the brother -- but he who loves the country where he was born, and considers what is necessary to better it, should rejoice, because by this road alone can freedom now be attained."

9.
And now that we have shown our aim and purpose, we will not end these inadequate lines without sharing your lamentations. We see the truth, and in our hearts and breasts we have a great and deep desire that you help us in the publication and propaganda of Kalayaan, above all amongst the unfortunate people of the country, for the insults they suffer are the cause and motive of this publication.

10.
And if by chance they could not use it for any greater purpose, may it at least serve as a cloth to wipe the tears that fall from their eyes and the sweat that runs from their humbled brows.

Document B

¡Katuiran din naman!

1.
Narito’t aming ibabalita ang isang nangyaring dapat na isiping mahinahon ng lahat ng tagalog. Ito’y isang bagay na nakamamangha’t nakapupoot, at gayon ma’y siyang nangyayari sa araw-araw.

2.
Sa kagabihan ng ikadalawangpuo’t apat na araw ng Diciembreng nagdaan, ang teniente del barrio sa S. Francisco del Monte ay nasasabahay niya’t humahatul sa hablahang nangyari sa dalawang babai. Anopa’t niyang kasalukuyang gumaganap ng kaniyang katungkulan, dadating ang kura’t siya’y tinapatan sa bintana at saba’y na tinungayaw ng katakut-takut, na sa kapangitang lubha ng mga sinabi ay di namin maitala.

3.
Datapua’t di nagkasiya ito sa galit o lupit niya, marahil, kaya’t sunod-sunod na pinutukan ang teniente del barrio ng isang revolver na dala sa kamay. Niyang makita nito, na siya’y talagang papatayin, at naramdaman niyang sumayad sa noo niya ang ikatlong putok, kaniyang sinibasud ang inagaw ang revolver at katulong ng mga anak niya’t asawa kanilang ginapus, sapagka’t sa paraang ito lamang kanilang mapipigilan ang sa among na kabangisan.

4.
Sa ganitong anyo, sila’y inabutan ng mga hukom na galing sa Maynila, at agad agad na dinakip ang buong kamaganakan at mga kaibigan ng teniente del barrio, sampung bata’t matanda, babai’t lalaki. Ang cura’y tahimik na umui sa convento ng kaniyang mga kasamahan sa Maynila.

5.
Sa mga tanungan at usisaang nangyari ay lumitaw na ang isang babai ang lumalabas na may sala sa hatulan ay kalunya ng among. (¡ !)

6.
Tignan ngayon ng bayan ang kabaitan, kalinisan at kapakumbabaan ng mga pinupoon niyang kahalili ng Dios.

7.
At tignan din naman ang gawa ng nagaakay sa kaniya sa landas ng katuiran, na ang maglilingko’y ipinagtatangol at pinapagdurusa ang nilulupig nito. At salamat kung ito’y sukat na; malapit na mangyari, ayon sa mga alingawngaw at dating ugali, na ang teniente del barrio at ang anak na babaing nito, na nag ngangalan ng Pia, ay itapun ang isa sa ibang pulo, at ang isa sa iba; sapagka’t ito’y siyang kinakailangan sa mga ayaw papatay sa ama ng kalulua.

Madlangaway

Reason yet again!

1.
We will tell news here about an incident that all Tagalogs need to think about calmly. It is an astonishing and infuriating matter, and yet such things happen every day.

2.
On the evening of the twenty-fourth of December last, the barrio lieutenant in San Francisco del Monte was in his house adjudicating on a dispute between two women. Whilst he was thus engaged in his duty, the parish priest arrived at the window and shouted some fearful profanities mixed with harsh words that we cannot write.

3.
But then, seemingly unable to contain his anger or cruelty, he shot at the barrio lieutenant with a revolver he had been carrying in his hand. Seeing this, and believing that he would really be killed, and feeling the third shot graze his forehead, the barrio lieutenant lunged forward, grabbed the revolver and with the help of his children and wife tied the priest up, because this was the only way they could stop the ferocious father.

4.
At this moment, some justices of the peace arrived from Manila and immediately arrested the whole family and some friends of the barrio lieutenant, ten people, young and old, women and men. The priest quietly returned home to the convento of his confrères in Manila.

5.
As a result of questions and investigations, it was discovered that the woman who was found to be at fault in the dispute was the mistress of the master (¡!).

6.
Now the people can see the goodness, propriety and humility of the lords who are the representatives of God.

7.
And also to be seen is a duty to lead the people on the path of reason, to support and defend them and to punish whoever oppresses them. It would be good if this were all. But soon it will happen, according to rumour and previous custom, that the barrio lieutenant and his daughter, named Pia, will be deported, one to one island and one to another, because this is what is deemed necessary for those who do not want to kill the father of souls.

Madlangaway

Document C

Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan

Panaho’y matamis sa tinubuang Bayan
at pawang panglugod ang balang matanauan[?],
ang simoy sa parang ay panghatid buhay,
tapat ang pagirog, sulit ang mamatay.¹⁵

J. Rizal

1.
Aling pagibig pa ang hihigit kaya
sa pagkadalisay at pagkadakila
gaya ng pagibig sa tinubuang lupa?
¿alin pagibig pa? wala na nga; wala.

2.
Ulitulitin mang basahin ng isip
at isa-isahing talastasing pilit
ang salita’t buhay na limbag at titik
ng sangtinakpan ito ang mababatid.

3.
¡Banal na pagibig! pagikaw ang nukal
sa tapat na puso ng sino't alin man,
imbi’t taong gubat maralita’t mangmang
nagiging dakila at iginagalang.

4.
Pagpupuring lubos ang palaging gawad
ng taong mahal sa Bayan niyang liyag
umawit, tumula, kumatha’t sumulat
kalakhan din niya'y isinisiwalat.

5.
Walang mahalagang hindi inihandog
ng may pusong mahal sa Bayan niyang irog
dugo, yaman, dunong, katiisa’t pagod,
buhay ma’y abuting magkalagot-lagot.

6.
¿Bakit? ¿alin ito na sakdal ng laki,
na hinahandugan ng buong pagkasi,
na sa lalung mahal nakapangyayari
at ginugugulan ng buhay na iwi?

7.
¡Ah! ito’y ang inang Bayang tinubuan
na siyang una’t tangi na kinamulatan
ng kawiliwiling liwanag ng araw
na nagbigay init sa lunong katawan.

8.
Sa kaniya ay utang ang unang paglangap
ng simoy ng hanging nagbibigay lunas
sa inis na puso na sisingap-singap
ng pinakadustang kanyang mga anak.

9.
Kalakip din nitong pagibig sa Bayan
lahat ng lalung mahal¹⁶
mula sa tuat aliw ng kasangulan
hangang sa katawa’y mapasa libingan.

10.
Ang nangakaraang panahun ng aliw
ang inaasahang araw na darating
ng pagkatimawa ng mga alipin
liban pa sa Bayan, ¿saan tatanghalin?

11.
At ang balang kahuy at ang balang sanga
ng parang niya't gubat na kaaya-aya
kung makita’y susagi sa alaala
ang ina’t ang giliw, lumipas na saya.

12.
Tubig niyang malinaw na anaki'y bubog
bukal sa batisang nagkalat sa bundok
malambot na huni ng matuling agus
nakaaaliw din sa pusung may lungkot.

13.
¡Sa aba ng mawalay sa tinubuang Bayan
gunita niya’y laguing sakbibi ng lumbay
walang alaala’t inaasam-asam
kung di ang makita'y ang lupa niyang mahal.

14.
Pati ng magdusa't sampung kamatayan
wari ay masarap kung dahil sa Bayan
at lalung maghirap, ¡oh! himalang bagay!
lalung pagirog pa ang sa kaniya'y alay.¹⁷

15.
Kung ang Bayang ito'y nasasapanganib
at kinakailangang siya’y ipagtankilik
ang anak, asawa, magulang, kapatid
sa isang tawag niya’y tatalikdang pilit.

16.
Dapua’t kung ang Baya’y ang Katagalugan
na nilapastangan at niyuyurakan
katuiran niya’t puri ng tagaibang Bayan,
ng tunay na bangis ng hayop sa parang,¹⁸

17.
¿Di gaano kaya ang paghihinagpis
ng pusung tagalog sa puring na lait?
at ¿aling kalooban na lalung tahimik
ang di pupukawin sa panghihimagsik?

18.
¿Saan magbubuhat ang panghihinayang¹⁹
sa paghihiganti’t gumugol ng buhay,
kung wala ding iba na kasasadlakan,
kung di ang lumagi sa kaalipinan?

19.
¿Kung ang pagkabaun niya’t pagkalugmok
sa lusak ng daya’t tunay na pagayop,
supil ng panghampas tanikalang gapos,
at luha na lamang ang pinaaagos?

20.
Sa anyo inyang ito’y ¿sino ang tutungha’y
na di aakayin sa gawang magdamdam?
pusong naglilipak sa pagkasukaban
ang hindi gumugol ng dugo at buhay.

21.
¿Mangyayari kaya, na ito’y malangap,
at hindi lingapin ng tunay na anak,
kung sa inang liig ay nasasayapak
ng mga kastilang gumanti ng hirap?

22.
¿Nasaan ang dangal ng mga tagalog?
¿nasaan ang dugong dapat na ibuhos?
Baya'y inaapi, ¿bakit di kumilos,
at natitilihang ito’y mapanood?

23.
Hayo na nga, kayo, kayong nangabuhay
sa pagasang lubos ng kaginhawahan,
at walang tinamo kung di kapaitan,
hayo na’t ibigin ang naabang Bayan.

24.
Kayong natuyan na, sa kapapasakit
ng dakilang hangad sa batis ng dibdib,
muling pabalungin, tunay na pagibig
kusang ibulalas sa Bayang piniit.

25.
Kayong nalagasan ng bunga’t bulaklak,
kahuy na sariwa, na nilanta’t sukat
ng balabalaki’t makapal na hirap
muling manariwa’t sa Baya'y lumiyag.

26.
Kayo mga pusong pilit inihapay
ng daya at bagsik ng ganid na asal,
ngayon ay magbangu’t nariyan ang Bayan,
nariya’t humihibik, mga anak siya’y antay.

27.
Kayong mga dukhang walang tanging palad,
kung di ang mabuhay sa dalita’t hirap,
ampunin ang Bayan, kung nasa ay lunas,
pagka’t ginhawa niya’y ginhawa ng lahat.

28.
Datapua’t ibigin ng lubos na lubos
sa lahat ng bagay itangi sa loob
at sa kalakhan niya’y dapat na iubos
ng malaking puso ang malaking linkod.

A.B.

Notes

¹Gregoria de Jesus, "Mga Tala ng aking Buhay" in Julio Nakpil and the Philippine Revolution, with the autobiography of Gregoria de Jesus (Manila: Heirs of Julio Nakpil, 1964), p.162.

²In a memoir written in 1899, Antonino Guevara, who joined the KKK in early August 1896, also recalls believing at the time that "some 30,000" were "pledged to rise in arms". Antonino Guevara y Mendoza, History of One of the Initiators of the Filipino Revolution, translated from the Spanish by O.D. Corpuz (Manila: National Historical Institute, 1988), p.v.

³Santiago V. Alvarez, The Katipunan and the Revolution: the memoirs of a general, translated by Paula Carolina S. Malay (Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1992), p.11.

⁴Heraldo de Madrid, August 29, 1896. I am grateful to Roberto Blanco Andrés for sending me a copy of this item.

⁵Rolando M. Gripaldo, Liberty and Love: the political and ethical philosophy of Emilio Jacinto (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 2001), p.10.

⁶José Rizal, "Ang mga karampatan ng tao" (c.1891-2) in Escritos políticos e históricos (Manila: Comisión Nacional del Centenario de José Rizal, 1961), pp.293-4.

⁷Spanish translation by Juan Caro y Mora published under the title "Á los compatriotas" in Retana, Archivo, vol.III, pp.134-8 (Caro y Mora, an ardently pro-Spanish Creole, was at this time the Manila correspondent of the Heraldo de Madrid); a fragment was translated into English by James LeRoy, and this fragment in turn translated into Tagalog under the title "Sa mga Kababayan" by Virgilio S. Almario, Panitikan ng rebolusyon(g 1896) (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1997), p.159.

⁸Spanish translation by Juan Caro y Mora published under the title "Manifiesto" in Retana, Archivo, vol.III, pp.138-44; a slightly different, partial, Spanish translation by Epifanio de los Santos printed alongside [in parallel text format] a partial translation into English by Gregorio Nieva in Epifanio de los Santos, "Emilio Jacinto", Philippine Review, III:6 (June 1918), pp.419-20; translated/ reconstructed from Caro y Mora’s Spanish into Tagalog under the title "Pahayag" by Virgilio S. Almario, Panitikan ng rebolusyon(g 1896) (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1997), pp.160-3.

⁹Spanish translation by Juan Caro y Mora published under the title "Lo que deben saber y entender los indios" in Retana, Archivo, vol.III, pp.144-8; a different Spanish translation, by Epifanio de los Santos, published under the title "Lo que deben saber los Filipinos" in his "Andrés Bonifacio", Revista Filipina, II:11 (November 1917), p.64; English translation by Gregorio Nieva from De los Santos’s Spanish published under the title "What the Filipinos Should Know", Philippine Review, III:1-2 (January-February 1918), p.39; Tagalog version published by José P. Santos in Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan (Manila: n.pub, 1935), pp.6-7; English translation by Teodoro A. Agoncillo from Santos’s Tagalog version published under the title "What the Filipinos Should Know" in The Writings and Trial of Andrés Bonifacio, translated by Teodoro A. Agoncillo with the collaboration of S. V. Epistola (Manila: Antonio J. Villegas; Manila Bonifacio Centennial Commission; University of the Philippines, 1963), pp. 2-3 –- as posted on this website.

¹⁰Spanish translation by Epifanio de los Santos published under the title "Amor a la patria" in his "Andrés Bonifacio", Revista Filipina, II: 11 (November 1917), pp.64-6; English translation by Gregorio Nieva from De los Santos’s Spanish published under the title "Love of Country", Philippine Review, III:1-2 (January-February 1918), pp.40-1; Tagalog version published by José P. Santos in Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan (Manila: n.pub, 1935), pp.8-10; English translation by Teodoro A. Agoncillo from Santos’s Tagalog version published under the title "Love of Country" in The Writings and Trial of Andrés Bonifacio, as cited, pp. 5-8 –- as posted on this website.

¹¹Heraldo de Madrid, August 29, 1896.

¹²Glenn Anthony May, Inventing a Hero: the posthumous re-creation of Andres Bonifacio (Quezon City: New Day, 1997), p.40.

¹³I am indebted to Glenn May for his detailed and judicious comments on this version of "Pagibig sa Tinubuang Bayan", and likewise on the letter of Andrés Bonifacio to Julio Nakpil described in the posting on this website dated January 10, 2006.

¹⁴As indicated in the body of this piece, the text of "Sa mga Kababayan" transcribed here corresponds very substantially with the Spanish translation published by Retana in 1897. The most evident disparity is in the second sentence of this paragraph, which could be rendered from the Retana version into English as "But time passes; the multiple follies and the unfulfilled promises have clarified and awakened our whole view of things, and made us realise that the blood of the Spaniards here or living in the Archipelago is the same blood as that of the Spaniards who live in Spain."

¹⁵These four lines are from the "Song of María Clara" in Chapter XXXIII of the Noli, and were presumably translated from the Spanish of the first edition -- José Rizal, Noli me tangere: novela tagala (Berlin: Berliner Buchdruckerei-Actien-Gesellschaft, 1887), p.119. The same lines are rendered in English by Soledad Lacson-Locsin as: "Sweet are the hours in one’s own land/ Where all is loved under the sun,/ Life is the breeze in her fields sweeping,/ Death is welcome, and love more caring!" José Rizal, Noli me tangere, translated by Ma. Soledad Lacson-Locsin, edited by Raul L. Locsin (Manila: Bookmark, 1996), p.141.

¹⁶When editing the poem, Jacinto deleted words from this line, but in his haste omitted to substitute other words in their stead, leaving the line conspicuously short and incomplete. In the version published by José P. Santos in his Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan, the line reads "ang lahat ng lalung sa gunitay mahal".

¹⁷This fourteenth stanza is omitted from the Tagalog and English versions published in The Writings and Trial of Andres Bonifacio, presumably due to a simple error. It is however included in the Spanish and English translations that appeared in 1917 –8 and (in a virtually identical form to here) in the Tagalog version published by Santos in 1935.

¹⁸As indicated in the body of this piece, the text of "Pagibig" transcribed here does not differ substantially from the Santos version, as readers can verify by following the link to Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Himagsikan on this site. But there are minor differences in many stanzas, and significant differences in this sixteenth stanza, the twenty-first and the twenty-sixth. The final, twenty-eighth stanza is completely different in the Santos version. It is likely that the text transcribed by Santos, if not the final published version, is at least a later version than the one transcribed here.

¹⁹The text published by Santos (and later Agoncillo) includes question marks at four points where words could not be deciphered. The version transcribed here enables two of these gaps to be filled with reasonable certainty – here in stanza 18, where the final word of the first line is "paghihinayang", and in stanza 27, where the final word of the first line is "palad". The other uncertainties (in stanzas 26 and 28) cannot be resolved because the versions diverge at these two points.

2006-01-10T01:18:00.000-05:00

Richardson, Jim. "Andres Bonifacio in Cavite, April 24, 1897". (January 2006)

Introduction

General Santiago Alvarez recounts in his memoirs that in early April 1897 Andres Bonifacio transferred his headquarters from the friar estate house in Naic to the barrio of Limbon, some twenty kilometers to the south in the municipality of Indang. He was accompanied "not only by his troops, but also by followers, men and women, old and young alike."¹ Since late February, the Spaniards had been waging a successful counter-offensive against the insurgent forces in Cavite and by now had already recaptured several towns. Bonifacio’s personal authority as the leader of the Katipunan, meanwhile, had been devastatingly challenged by the momentous assembly held in Tejeros on March 22, at which a new revolutionary government had been created and Emilio Aguinaldo had been elected President. When Bonifacio moved to Limbon, says Alvarez, he was already planning finally to leave Cavite and journey north to the mountains above San Mateo, closer to Manila. For a while, though, Bonifacio and his followers set up a small fortified encampment in Limbon, and he remained there until his arrest by Aguinaldo’s soldiers on April 28. As is well known, he and his brother Procopio were then put on trial for plotting to assassinate Aguinaldo and overthrow the government. Found guilty, they were executed on May 10.

Transcribed below (in the original Tagalog, followed by an English translation) is a previously unpublished letter that Bonifacio wrote to Julio Nakpil on April 24, just four days before his arrest. Nakpil, a piano teacher prior to the revolution, had been appointed by Bonifacio as president of the Katipunan government in the "Northern District", the region to the north and east of the capital. He worked in tandem with Emilio Jacinto, the commander of KKK military forces in the Northern District, and it seems both men moved back and forth (sometimes together, sometimes separately) in the early months of 1897 between the seat of their civil administration ("Mataas na Sangunian") in Pasig and their military encampments in the Sierra Madre, including the base near San Mateo to which Bonifacio reportedly intended to head.²

Many readers of this website will be familiar with Glenn May’s Inventing a Hero, which amongst other things doubts the authenticity of various "Bonifacio letters" dated 1897 that have been published in different forms and translations since 1917.³ After Inventing a Hero had gone to press, Adrian Cristobal included facsimiles of three of these letters in his book The Tragedy of the Revolution, gratefully acknowledging their owner, the collector Emmanuel Encarnacion.⁴ The three letters reproduced by Cristobal are all addressed to Emilio Jacinto, and one bears exactly the same address and date -- Limbon, April 24, 1897 -- as the letter below from Bonifacio to Nakpil. This enables the disputed Jacinto letters and the Nakpil letter to be closely compared, and beneath the texts that follow I note a number of similarities that markedly strengthen the case for at least some of the letters to Jacinto being accepted as authentic.

This piece is part of a larger "work in progress" that I intend to submit for publication in due course, and any corrections or comments will be most welcome.

Text

The original Tagalog text of this letter bears accents in accordance with the conventions of the time, but these have been omitted here due to the difficulties of rendering them in electronic format. Words that are difficult to decipher are followed by a question mark in square brackets –- [?] –- and the round brackets are as found in the original –- (Laguna) –- as are the underlinings.

The text is as follows:

Sinaguto ito
ng ika 30 ng Abril 1897⁵

ANDRES BONIFACIO

MAYPAGASA

P. ng K.⁶ Kapulungan

M.⁷ Julio N. Nakpil, Giliw,
M. na P.⁸ ng Sangunian sa dakong Hilagaan

Minamahal na Kapatid: buhat sa sunodsunod na pagka-agaw ng Kastila sa mga bayan ng Silang, Dasmarinas, Imus, Bakood, Kawit, Noveleta, Salinas, Malabon at Tanza ay siyang kadahilanan ng di ko pag sulat dian sa inyo.

Tungkol sa mailigpit ninyong salapi ay inyong tipunin dian at di nararapat na inyong ipagkaloob sa kangino pa man, sapagka’t tayo ang nagpadala ng Poder sa Hong Kong ay tayo ang siyang mapapahiya kung walang maibigay tayong salapi, sapagka’t ang salaping nailigpit dito ay halos ubos na sa kagugugol ng mga Pinuno dito sa kanilang pagkakailangan at Panghihimagsik.

Ang mga kapsulang vacio at mga tanso na inyong natitipon dian ay inyong itagong mabuti at kasama ka na darating dian ang mga mangagawa ng kapsula at kanon.

Tungkol sa taung inyong ipinahatid dito na nagngangalan Benito de Guzman ay hindi ko nalaman ang kanyang pagkawala at kun sa akala ninyo na iyan ay masama ay inyong dakpin.

Ako at sampu ng mga kawal na nararito sa Tangway na may dalawangpung Remington at Mauser at mga dalawangpung de piston gayon din ang may mga isang libong sandatahan ay handa sa pag uwi [?] dian na na sa sa labas na ng bayan ng Indang at tanging inaantabayanan ang inutusan ko dian si M. Antonino Guevarra na makikipagyari sa inio rian tungkol sa binabalak namin pagsalakay sa dakong Silangan (Laguna); kaya’t marapatin ninyong pabalikin agad dito upang magawa sa madaling panahon ang nararapat.

Tungkol sa pagtitipon ng salapi ito’y kung mapasok tayo ng bayan ay madali na ang pag hingi o pag samsam sa manga mayayaman.

Kinakailangan kayo’y sumirkular sa mga bayan ng Bulakan at Nueva Ecija na ipakilala ninyo [?] ang kapangyarihan tungkol sa pamaguitan ng Nombramiento na aking ipinadala sa inyo tuloy gisingin ang kanilang kalooban sa pag galaw at huag ikasira ng loob ang pagkapasok ng Kastila nitong mga bayan ng Tangway, sapagka’t ang Revolucion sa nangyaring ito ay lalong lumaganap at lumaki sapagka’t tumawid sa mga bayan ng Batangan at Silangan at marahil tumawid pa ng Tayabas, Mindoro at Camarines, bukod dito’y dapat ikatira ang pagkakaayon sa Kastila ng ilang mga kababayan, sapagka’t sila ang doo’y gagawa ng paraan papagtananin ang mga sundalong tagalog,…gaya ng nangyayari ngayon sunodsunod na pag tatanan.

Kalakip nito na inyong tatangapin ang isang sulat na kasagutan na ipinadala dito ni M. Lucrecio Bachiller, Mataginting sa ipinadala dito na mangyaring inyong ipahatid sa madaling panahon upang magawa nito ang kinakailangan pag aayos sa kanyang mga kawal.

Gayondin naman ipinahatid ko dian sa inyo sa pamamagitan ni M. Antonino Guevarra ang mga nombramiento ninyo ng inyong Kalihim at ng kay Gral. Emilio.

Tangapin ninyo ang mahigpit na yakap.

Limbon (Indan), 24 Abril 1897

Ang Plo. Ng H. B.⁹
Andres Bonifacio
Maypagasa

H.L.¹⁰

Ang hukbo ng kapatid na si M. Lucrecio Taginting na dapat mapailalim sa inyong pangangasiwa ay kinakailangang inyong pagsadiain at pagsiyasatin ang mga kinakailangan nila.

Gayon din kung kayo’y may labis na polvora ay sila’y [?] inyong bigyan upang sa paraang ito ay huag na lumayo sa atin.

Kalakip na inyong tatangapin ang mga limbag na tula ni M. Rizal at ang Cartilla ay saka na magpapalimbag kami.

Vale

This text might be freely rendered in English as follows:

ANDRES BONIFACIO

MAYPAGASA¹¹

Pres. of the Sup. Congress

Mr Julio N. Nakpil, Giliw¹²
Exalted President of the Council in the Northern District

Dear Brother: The successive capture of the towns of Silang, Dasmarinas, Imus, Bakood, Kawit, Noveleta, Salinas, Malabon and Tanza by the Spaniards has meant that I have not been able to write to you there.

Regarding the money you are keeping, gather it together yourself; you must not entrust it to anyone else at all, because we were the ones authorized to send it to Hong Kong and we are the ones who will be embarrassed if we have no money to hand over, because the funds held here have almost all been spent by the chiefs here on their necessities and the Revolution.

The empty cartridge shells and coppers¹³ you are collecting there must be well hidden by you, and you should personally accompany the cartridge and cannon workers when they go to that place.

Regarding the person you sent here named Benito de Guzman, I don’t know about his disappearance, and if your opinion about him is bad, you should have him arrested.

Myself and ten soldiers here in Cavite have twenty Remingtons and Mausers and about twenty percussion rifles; we also have about a thousand volunteer troops ready to return home there who are now outside the town of Indang and are only waiting upon what was decided between my emissary Mr Antonino Guevarra and yourself in relation to our planned attack in the Southern District (Laguna), so you must send him back immediately in order that we can take the necessary action as soon as possible.¹⁴

Regarding the collection of funds here, when we enter the towns it is easy to solicit or sequester from the wealthy.

You need to make your authority known around the towns of Bulacan and Nueva Ecija, using the appointments I have sent you; awaken their resolve to be active and don’t let their spirit be broken by the Spanish advances here in the towns of Cavite, because the Revolution here is spreading and getting much stronger due to the towns of Batangas and Laguna crossing over, and perhaps Tayabas, Mindoro and Camarines will cross over also; this aside, it is necessary to counter the agreement the Spaniards have made with a few compatriots, because they are the ones who will find ways to make the Tagalog soldiers desert…like the succession of desertions that is happening now.

Together with this you will receive a letter which is a reply sent here by Mr Lucrecio Bachiller, Mataginting¹⁵, which you need to act and convey your instructions upon quickly in order that the requirements of his soldiers can be organized.

Likewise, I have also sent you there, through Mr Antonino Guevarra, your appointment and those of your Secretary and Gral. Emilio.¹⁶

Receive a firm embrace.

Limbon (Indan), 24 Abril 1897

The President of the Sovereign People
Andres Bonifacio
Maypagasa

P.S.

The army of brother Mr Lucrecio Taginting must be under your authority and you must be the one who investigates and takes care of their needs.

Likewise, if you have a surplus of powder, please give it to them in order that by this means they do not become distant from us.

Together with this, you will receive the printed copies of Mr Rizal’s poem, and we will also be printing the Cartilla.

Adieu

Similarities

The key similarities between this letter to Nakpil and the facsimile letters to Jacinto inserted in Cristobal’s book are as follows:

Stationery: The notepaper on which the letter to Nakpil is written looks to be the same size, and to have the same printed letterhead, as the facsimile letter dated March 8, 1897. The letterhead has the name "ANDRES BONIFACIO" written in a shallow arch above his Katipunan name, "MAYPAGASA" and his title, "P. ng K. Kapulungan" –- Pangulo ng Kataastaasang Kapulungan, or President of the Supreme Congress.¹⁷

Seal: The seal on the letter to Nakpil, stamped to the left of the signature, looks to be the same as on the facsimile letters dated April 16 and 24, 1897. At the centre is the Katipunan symbol, the letter "K" in the prehispanic baybayin script, from which rays shine out in all directions to the inner circle of the border. Around the border, between the inner and outer circles, are the words "HARING BAYAN KATAGALUGAN * KATAASTAASANG KAPULUNGAN" – "Sovereign People of Katagalugan* Supreme Congress".

Signature: The signature and its accompaniments look the same as on the facsimile letter dated April 24, 1897. Above the name is the abbreviated title "Ang Plo ng H. B." –- "The President of the Sovereign People". The name is written in a strikingly distinctive, almost ornate style. The "A", "n" and "d" of the forename are written in a regular script, but then there is a triangle of dots, and the "r", "e" and "s" follow in a much smaller superscript. A line from the final "o" of Bonifacio swoops back leftwards beneath the signature and underlines the appended KKK name "Maypagasa".

Handwriting: Perhaps, one day, the paper, ink, language and handwriting of these letters will be subjected to detailed professional analysis. I am not qualified in any of these areas, and the decisions about submitting the documents for analysis are obviously not mine to take. To a strictly amateur eye, however, the penmanship on the two letters dated April 24 (and the letters to Jacinto dated March 8 and April 16) does look like it could come from the same hand. At first sight, it is true, the overall appearance of the two April 24 letters is quite dissimilar. On the letter addressed to Jacinto, the writing is neater and more densely packed on the page. It is a much longer letter, contains more detail and was written with greater care. The letter to Nakpil, by comparison, is a hasty note. But beyond the variations in penmanship that may have resulted from speed, posture or whatever, there are distinct commonalities in the forward slant of the writing and the shaping of the characters. Bonifacio liked calligraphy, and traces of his practiced elegance survived in his handwriting even when he rushed, as for instance in the flourishes that adorn his capital "I"s , "P"s and "T"s.

Content: In terms of content, there are several parallels between the letter to Nakpil and the facsimile letter that bears the same date of April 24, 1897. Most notably:

• Both letters refer to the Spanish attacks on the Cavite towns of Silang, Dasmarinas, Imus, Bakood, Kawit, Noveleta, Salinas, Malabon and Tanza, and with just one exception (the inversion of Salinas and Malabon) they both list these nine towns in that order.

• Both letters report on the military forces and weaponry at the writer’s immediate disposal in Indang, and tally them almost identically –- about 20 breech-loading rifles (specified as Remingtons in the Jacinto letter, Remingtons and Mausers in the Nakpil letter), about 20 older rifles, 10 soldiers ("kawal") and about 1,000 volunteers ("sandatahan").

• Both letters state that the sandatahan are ready to return there ("pag uwi dian", meaning to the north) and are waiting only for the writer’s orders, which will in turn depend on him hearing the outcome of discussions Jacinto and Nakpil are supposed to have had with Antonino Guevarra, who had been entrusted by Bonifacio to deliver other communications to them in the recent past.

• Both letters refer to the financial straits of the revolution, and describe the problem in almost identical terms. Funds, says the letter addressed to Jacinto, are "halos naubos na sa kagugugol ng mga Pinuno sa kailangan nila at Panghihimagsik". Funds, says the letter to Nakpil, are "halos ubos na sa kagugugol nga mga Pinuno dito sa kanilang pagkakailangan at Panghihimagsik".

• Both letters suggest that the best way of raising money is to get it from the rich, a process which they describe in almost identical terms. When we enter the towns, says the letter to Jacinto, we should "humingi o sumamsam sa kanino pa mang mayaman". Upon entering the towns, says the letter to Nakpil, "madali na ang pag hingi o pag samsam sa manga mayayaman".

• Both letters allude to money Nakpil had collected (for the purchase of arms and ammunition from Hong Kong), and emphasize the writer’s concern that this money should not be handed over to someone else –- to anyone else in the letter to Nakpil; specifically to Mamerto Natividad in the letter to Jacinto.

Cumulatively, these resemblances of style and substance are so strong that it seems only two verdicts on (at least some of) the disputed letters to Jacinto are now sustainable. Either they were fabricated by someone who had access to other, genuine Bonifacio letters from this time or, and this seems much more likely, they are indeed authentic.

Further tending to corroborate the authenticity of the letter to Jacinto dated April 16, 1897 is Bonifacio’s reference in the postscript of his April 24 letter to Nakpil to "the appointment of Gral. Emilio" that he had recently sent through Antonino Guevara. In all probability, this was the appointment dated April 15, 1897 of Jacinto as Commander of the Army in the Northern District ("Pangulong hukbo sa dakong Hilagaan ng Maynila"), a photograph of which appears on p.186 of Agoncillo’s Revolt of the Masses. For access to this document, Agoncillo acknowledges the "courtesy of Jose P. Santos". If Santos owned the original of this appointment document, the likelihood obviously increases that he also owned the original of a letter that Antonino Guevarra was asked to take north at the same time, i.e. the letter from Bonifacio to Jacinto dated April 16 which was later sold by Santos’s daughter and is now in the collection of Emmanuel Encarnacion.

When making his case that the letters to Jacinto were "probably forgeries", it may be noted, Glenn May does not argue that their content is spurious. He observes that some of the information they contain is "not corroborated" by other sources, but he mentions nothing in them that is fatally contradicted by other sources. The letters, he writes, "are not riddled with striking anachronisms, fantastic details, obviously forged signatures and the like."¹⁸ His case, rather, is based on the letters’ provenance, their obscure history and the many divergences between different versions. If some, maybe all, of the letters to Jacinto owned by Encarnacion are now to be accepted as authentic, some of the questions raised by May still need to be answered.

Non-obsessives may wish to skip these final three paragraphs! The most problematic of the issues raised by May is the existence of different Tagalog versions of the letters. Though not greatly different in meaning, specifically, there are several variations in language between (i) the Tagalog versions included in an unpublished work written by Jose P. Santos in 1948¹⁹ and (ii) the Tagalog versions published by Teodoro Agoncillo in 1963²⁰, and more numerous and substantial differences in language between these two versions and (iii) the letters owned by Encarnacion as reproduced in facsimile form by Cristobal.

How can this be explained? One hypothesis would be that the historian Epifanio de los Santos did, as his son Jose P. Santos later maintained, purchase at some time in the 1900s the letters now owned by Encarnacion. De los Santos published the letters in Spanish translation in 1917, and English translations appeared early in 1918.²¹ However, this hypothesis continues, when Jose P. Santos came to write his manuscript on Bonifacio in 1948, he did not for some reason have the Tagalog originals he had inherited from his father to hand, and he therefore reconstituted (or asked someone else to reconstitute) Tagalog versions from the Spanish or English translations, more or less retaining the meaning but inevitably creating texts quite different from the originals. Teodoro Agoncillo then based his Tagalog versions heavily on those of Santos, but made a few stylistic changes. Some years later, after the death of Santos, his daughter, Teresita Pangan, sorted out his collection prior to selling it, and the original Tagalog letters resurfaced. They were acquired first by Severina de Asis, and subsequently by Emmanuel Encarnacion.

The main trouble with this hypothesis is that the Spanish and English translations that appeared in 1917 and 1918 contain a scattering of Tagalog words and phrases in parentheses, and in the case of one letter –- the undated letter from Bonifacio to Jacinto that is not included in facsimile form in Cristobal’s book –- these Tagalog words and phrases also got altered in the Tagalog texts which were included in his son’s unpublished manuscript of 1948 and were later published by Agoncillo.²² Santos or whoever else retranslated this particular letter into Tagalog, in other words, decided to amend the small portions of the text before them that were already in the Tagalog of the originals. It seems bizarre.

Notes

(1) Santiago V. Alvarez, The Katipunan and the Revolution: the memoirs of a general, translated by Paula Carolina S. Malay (Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1992), p.95.
(2) Julio Nakpil, Julio Nakpil and the Philippine Revolution, edited and translated by Encarnacion Alzona (Quezon City: Academic Publishing, 1997), p.47.
(3) Glenn A. May, Inventing a Hero: the posthumous re-creation of Andres Bonifacio (Madison: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996), pp.53-81.
(4) Adrian E. Cristobal, The Tragedy of the Revolution (Makati City: Studio 5 Publishing Inc., 1997) pp.146-7. Photographs of at least one or two of the letters to Jacinto had appeared previously, for example in Carlos Ronquillo, Ilang talata tungkol sa paghihimagsik nang 1896-1897, edited by Isagani R. Medina, (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1996), p.43.
(5) This note is written at the top of the letter in a different hand, presumably that of Nakpil or his secretary. By the date the reply was despatched, Bonifacio had already been arrested and brought before the military court in Maragondon.
(6) Abbreviation of "Pangulo ng Kataastaasang".
(7) Abbreviation of "Maginoo".
(8) Abbreviation of "Mataas na Pangulo".
(9) Abbreviation of "Ang Pangulo ng Haring Bayan".
(10) Abbreviation of "Huling Lagda".
(11) Bonifacio’s Katipunan name, meaning Hopeful.
(12) Nakpil’s Katipunan name, meaning Love.
(13) "Coppers" in this context probably means the copper boxes in which gunpowder was transported.
(14) In his brief memoir, which he dedicates to Emilio Aguinaldo, Guevarra (or Guevara) mentions neither this particular mission nor, in fact, the names of Bonifacio, Jacinto and Nakpil at all, a silence which, as O.D. Corpuz sadly notes, "reflects one of the tragedies of the Revolution". On April 24, the day that Bonifacio wrote to Nakpil from Indang saying he was anxiously awaiting the outcome of the critical discussions Guevarra was supposed to have in the north, Guevarra, according to his chronology, was actually in or around Indang himself, and had been there for two days. Even if he was not in the immediate vicinity of Bonifacio’s headquarters, he could surely have sent a messenger to convey his crucial news, and Bonifacio and his thousand men could then have decided to move off either northwards to the provinces of Manila and Morong or eastwards into Laguna. Instead, they waited a while longer, and for Bonifacio those additional days waiting were to mean death. It is possible, of course, that Guevarra never even went to see Jacinto and Nakpil, and asked someone else to deliver their letters. Antonino Guevara y Mendoza, History of One of the Initiators of the Filipino Revolution, translated from the Spanish by O.D. Corpuz (Manila: National Historical Institute, 1988), pp. ii; 7-8.
(15) Bachiller’s Katipunan name, meaning Vibrant or Sonorous.
(16) Emilio Jacinto. Emilio Aguinaldo is referred to in the letter to Jacinto dated April 24 as the lower ranked "Capitan Emilio". The purpose of the appointment document may have been to change Jacinto’s official designation rather than his responsibilities, because he had already been using the title Head of the Army ("Punong Hukbo").
(17) Prior to the revolution, the Katipunan’s highest body had been known as the Kataastaasang Sangunian. It is not known precisely when or where the Kataastaasang Kapulungan was constituted in its stead.
(18) May, Inventing a Hero, p.79.
(19) Jose P. Santos, "Si Andres Bonifacio at ang Katipunan", unpublished ms (1948).
(20) The Writings and Trial of Andres Bonifacio, translated by Teodoro A. Agoncillo with the collaboration of S. V. Epistola (Manila: Antonio J. Villegas; Manila Bonifacio Centennial Commission; University of the Philippines, 1963), pp.82-91.
(21) Epifanio de los Santos, "Andres Bonifacio" [in Spanish], Revista Filipina, 2 (November 1917), pp.59-82, which was translated into English by Gregorio Nieva and published in Philippine Review, 3 (January-February 1918), pp.34-58.
(22) Agoncillo, The Revolt of the Masses, pp.399-402.

2006-01-06T03:18:00.000-05:00

Serrano, Leopoldo R. "Mga Pangyayari sa Buhay ni Andres Bonifacio." Historical Bulletin 4.3 (September 1960 [1958]): 90-99.

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Mga Pangyayari sa Buhay ni Andres Bonifacio*

Sinulat ni Leopoldo R. Serrano

Itinuturing kong isang dakilang karangalan ang pagbibigay sa akin ng pagkakataong makapagsalita sa harap ng mga piling kasapi ng makabayan at bantog na "Kapatirang Alagad ni Bonifacio, Inc." Ayon sa liham na ipinadala sa akin ng kaibigang Exequiel Villacorta, ang simpatiko at masipag na kalihim ng inyong Kapatiran, noong ika-12 ng buwang ito, ako raw ay "isa sa mga nagsaliksik tungkol sa buhay at nagawa ng ating Bayaning Bonifacio." At noong kami'y magkausap sa kanyang tanggapan sa Abenida Rizal ay hiniling niya sa akin na isalaysay ko ang ilang mga pahgyayari sa buhay ng dakilang Supremo ng Katipunan bago sumiklab ang Himagsikan dito sa ating bayan.

Totoo nga naman at di matututulan ninuman na dahop ang kaalaman ng marami sa ating mga kababayan tungkol sa kanyang buhay, mula sa kanyang kapanganakan noong ika-30 ng Nobyembre, 1863 hanggang ipahayag niya ang pagsisimula ng Himagsikan sa Balintawak, Kalookan, noong ika-26 ng Agosto, 1896, Di gaya ni Dr. Jose Rizal, wala siyang iniwang mga talang pang-araw-araw ng kanyang mga ginawa o nasaksihang pangyayari sa kanyang buhay. Kakaunti rin ang kanyang mga kasulatang titik niya na naiwan sa atin, at ang mga iyo'y nauukol lamang sa Katipunan o nagdaang Himagsikan.

Subali't ayokong biguin ang pag-asa at pagtitiwala sa akin ng mahal na kaibigang Villacorta at ng mga ilan pang nakikinig sa akin ngayon, na marahil ay nakabasa ng mga lathalaln kong lumabas sa mga magasin at pahayagan sa Maynila, lalo na yaong may-kaugnayan sa buhay ng ating mga bayani

*This address was delivered on November 30, 1958 during the symposium on the life and labors of Andres Bonifacio under the auspices of the "Kapatirang Alagad ni Bonifacio." It was held at Jack's Place, on the Bonifacio Rotonda, Caloocan Rizal.

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Ang unang babanggitin ko sa inyo ay ang pagkakaroon ni Andres Bonifacio ng dugong banyaga o Kastila, gaya rin naman ng marami sa mga bayani ng ating lahi na nanguna sa kilusan sa sikularisasiyon ng simbahang katoliko, dito sa ating bayan, sa kilusan sa pagpapalaganap ng tunay na kalagayan at karaingan ng ating bayan (propaganda movement), at sa Himagsikang Pilipino, gaya nina Padre Pelaez, Padre Burgos, Dr. Rizal, Heneral Aguinaldo, at iba pa.

Ayon sa aklat na may bilang 9 ng mga ikinasal sa simbahan ng Tundo, Maynila, ang mga magulang ni Andres Bonifacio ay ikinasal sa nasabing simbahan noong ika-23 ng Ehero ng taong 1863. Ang pangalan ng kanyang ama ay Santiago Bonifacio at siya'y taga-Tondo, Maynila. Ang kanyang ina naman ay si Catalina de Castro, isang mestisang Kastila na ipinanganak sa lalawigan ng Sambales.

Isinilang si Bonifacio sa pook na tinitirhan ng mga maralita o pangkaraniwang mamamayan. Lumaki siya na ang kanyang paligid ay walang masasabing katangian maliban sa karalitaan, pananalat, at karumihan, ayon sa isang litaw na mananalaysay.

Mayroon si Bonifacio na tatlong kapatid na lalaki at dalawang kapatid na babae. Ang mga kapatid niyang lalaki ay nagngangalang Ciriaco, Procopio, at Troadio. Ang mga kapatid naman niyan'g babae ay sina Espiridiona at Maxima. Si Andres ang pinakamatanda sa pitong magkakapatid, kaya't nang sila'y maulila sa kanilang mga magulang noong si Andres ay tumutuntong pa lamang sa gulang na labing-apat na taon, siya na ang naging puno ng sambahayan (padre de familia). Samakatwid, noong hindi pa halos matatawag na binatilyo si Andres ay nagkaroon na siya ng mabigat na pananagutan: ang buhayin at palakihin, sa isang wastong paraan, ang kanyang mga kapatid na naiwanan sa kanya ng kanyang mga magulang.

Bagaman isinilang siya sa gitna ng karalitaan, di naman nagpabaya ang kanyang mga mahal na magulang na siya'y papag-aralin. Tungkol sa kanyang pinasukang paaralan o natapos sa kanyang pag-aaral, may iba't ibang palagay ang ilang mga tao na may kaalaman o nagsaliksik tungkol sa bagay na ito. Ayon sa kanyang kapatid na si Espiridiona, siya'y nagaral sa paaralan ng isang ginoong nagngangalang Serrano. Maari kayang ang tinutukoy ni Espiridiona ay ang paaralan sa Binondo ni G. Pedro

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Serrano-Laktaw? Ayon naman kay Manual Artigas y Cuerva, kilalang mananalaysay ng ating bayan, doon sa paaralan ni G. Guillermo Osmeña, isang gurong taga-Sugpu, pumasok si Andres. Ganito rin ang paniniwala ni G. Teodoro A. Agoneillo, ang mag-akda ng kasaysayan ng buhay ni Bonifacio na may pamagat na The Revolt of the Masses. Ang nasabing paaralan ay nasa Meisik, Maynila. Sinabi pa rin ni G. Agoncillo na si Andres ay sa mababang paaralan (escuela elemental) lamang nakapag-aral, dahil sa sunod na pagkamatay ng kanyang ina at ama. Subali't may iba namang palagay si Dr. Pio Valenzuela, isa sa mga haligi ng Katipunan at kasama at kumpare pa ni Bonifacio. Ayon kay Dr. Valenzuela, si Andres ay umabot sa ikatlong baitang ng segunda enseñanza o mataas na paaralang pribado, na kung tawagin ay Latinidad. At noong panahong iyon ay mayroong tatlong gayong paaralan sa Tundo.

Ayon naman sa yumaong si G. Jose Lopez del Castillo y Kabangis, naging punong mananaliksik ng Kawanihan ng mga Aklatang Bayan, si Andres ay nag-aral sa paaralan ni Epifanio del Castillo, na balita sa tawag na Maestrong Paño at itinuturing na Decano de los Maestros de Primera Enseñanza de Filipinas sa Tundo. Ang kanyang paaralan ay naroroon sa Daang Ilaya at malapit sa Plasa Leon XIII, at kilala sa pangalang Primera Escuela Primaria de Niños de Tondo. Ibinatay ni G. Jose Lopez del Castillo y Kabangis, na anak ni Maestrong Paño, ang kanyang paniniwala na si Bonifacio ay sa paaralan ng kanyang ama nag-aral sa isang nilagdaan at sinumpang pahayag ni G. Urbano Cruz, madalas tagurian si Bonifacio ng mga katipunero na "Bata ni Maestrong Paño."

Kung primera enseñanza lamang ang natapos ni Bonifacio, magiging sapat na ba iyon upang siya'y makapagsalita ng wikang Kastila? May tatlong lalaking naging kilala sa Tundo ang nag-aral sa paaralan ni Maestrong Paño: Si Timoteo Paez, kaibigan ni Dr. Rizal, si Nicolas Zamora, taga-pagtatag ng Iglesia Evangélica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas, at si Moises Buzon, taga-pagtatag ng Iglesia Evangélica Unida de Cristo. Ang mga lalaking ito'y naging mahusay sa pagsasalita ng Kastila.

Naragdagan ang karunungan ni Bonifacio at ang kanyang kaalaman sa wikang Kastila sa pamamagitan ng pagkakaroon niya ng mga mabuting aklat at ng matiyagang pagbabasa niya ng mga

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iyon kung gabi. Ang mga aklat niyang laging binabasa ay ang mga sumusunod: La Historia de la Revolucion Francesa, Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo, Les Miserables, Indio Errante, Las Ruinas de Palmira, Ang Biblia, Batas Pangdaigdig, Kodigo Penal at Sibil, Buhay ng mga Panguno ng Estados Unidos, mga nobela ni Dumas, at ilang libro ng panggagamot. Ayon kay Espiridiona, ang mga aklat sa batas na kanyang binabasa ay pag-aari ni Emilio Jacinto, at ang mga aklat naman sa panggagamot ay kay Dr. Pio Valenzuela.

Totoong mahilig si Bonifacio sa pagbabasa, ayon kay Espiridiona na kung tawagin niya ay Nonay. Naging kaugalian niya ang magbasa ng mga aklat kung gabi, at, ayon naman kay Dr. Valenzuela, madalas na hindi siya natutulog dahil sa pagnanais niyang mabasa ang kanyang mga aklat. Samakatwid, sa pamamagitan ng pagbabasa niya ng mga aklat na nasusulat sa wikang Kastila, nagagawa niya ang pagtuturo sa sarili at pagdadagdag sa kanyang kaalaman sa matamis na wika ni Cervantes, anupa't naisalin niya sa Pilipino ang Ultimo Adios ni Dr. Rizal. Hangga ngayo'y hinahangaan ng mga mananagalog ang gayong pagkakasalin.

Ang kanyang mga aklat ay nilamon ng apoy nang masunog ang kanyang bahay samantalang siya'y nasa Kabite at pinalalaganap ang Katipunan. Dahil sa kasakunang iyon, nagkapalipat-lipat silang mag-asawa ng tahanan. Ayon kay Wenceslao E. Retana, ang mga kasulatan niyang pangsarili ay iniingatan niya sa bodega ng Fresell and Company. At ang mga kasulatang yoo'y sinamsam ng Guardia Civil Veterana ng Maynila nang matuklasan na ang Katipunan.

Nang ang magkakapatid ay maagang maiwanan ng kanilang mapag-arugang magulang, paano sila nabuhay sa ilalim ng pag-aaruga ni Andres na noo'y may gulang lamang na labing-apat na taon? Pinanghinaan ba ng loob si Andres? Naging mainam kaya ang kanilang pagsusunuran at ang kanilang bagong paraan ng pamumuhay?

Agad umisip si Bonifacio ng paraan ng pagkita ng sapat na magugugol upang sila'y mabuhay. Gumagawa siya ng mga baston at mga abanikong papel na kanyang ipinagbibili pagka-tapos mayari ang mga iyon sa tulong ng kanyang mga kapatid. Sa paggawa ng mga baston at abaniko, ayon kay Espiridiona, si

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Andres ang pinakakapatas o tagapagturo. Nakahilera ang mga magkakapatid, samantalang sila'y gumagawa. Kung hindi tumpak ang paggawa o pagkayari, halimbawa ng isang abaniko, ay itinuturo ni Andres ang paraan ng paggupit ng papel o paglapat o pagdikit sa kinayas na kawayan upang maging maganda ang abaniko kung mayari. Minsan ay napagsalitaan niya si Ciriaco, sapagka't nagalit ito at pinagsira-sira ang ilang yaring abaniko dahil sa ginawang panunukso sa kanya ni Nonay. Tinutulungan din sila ng kanilang Manong Andres sa paglalako ng mga nayaring baston at abaniko pagdating niya mula sa bahay-kalakal na pinapasukan niya. Kahit na mababa ang pinag-aralan ni Bonifacio mayroon siyang dalawang katangian na nakatutulong sa kanilang hanap-buhay: ang kahusayan niya sa pagsulat at paggawa ng mga kagamitan sa tahanan. Nakagagawa siya ng mga paskel para sa mga bahay-kalakal. Nilalagyan niya ng magagandang dibuho, na may iba't ibang kulay at anyo, ang nayayari nilang baston at abaniko. Ang baston ay yari sa palasan. Nang marami nang makagugusto sa kanilang mga ipinagbibiling baston at abaniko, pinayagan niyang pati ng ilang kababata nilang kapit-bahay ay tumulong sa kanila at kumita ng salapi.

Lumalaki sila ay lumalaki naman ang gastos sa bahay nila kaya't napilitan ang mga lalaki ng sambahayan ni Bonifacio na humanap ng ibang gawain sa labas ng tahanan. Pumasok si Bonifacio na isang kawani o mensahero sa Fleming and Company. Naging bantay siya pagkatapos ng bodega ng Fresell and Company. Ang dalawang samahang ito sa pangangalakal ay pagaari ng mga Ingles. Nang magsimula ang Himagsikan ay naglilingkod pa rin si Bonifacio sa Fresell and Company Hindi lamang siya mensahero ng Fleming and Company, kundi ahente pa rin ng mga bagay na ipinagbibili ng nasabing bahay-kalakal.

Tungkol sa kanyang paglilingkod sa dalawang nabanggit na bahay-kalakal, ganito ang sinabi ng kilalang mananalaysay na si Austin Craig:

Siya (si Bonifacio) ay tapat, mag-kakayahan, matalino, mahusay na sumulat, at masunuring manggagawa. Dahil sa mga ito, nakamtan niya at ginampanan ang isang may-pananagutang puwesto sa isang samahang pag-aari ng taga-ibang lupa, na doo'y siya'y tagapagbantay ng bodega at kawani sa

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dala ng mga kalakal, at ligtas siya sa mga pahamak ng maraming mga Kastilang nangangasiwa sa mga gawain, bagay na nakapag-papahina ng loob sa anumang paghahangad ng mga Pilipino tungkol sa pangunguna o pagkakaroon ng mga mabubuting hangarin. Si Bonifacio ay nagkaroon ng maraming kakilalang mga taga-ibang lupa na ang mga ito'y nakasundo niya dahil sa kanyang kakayahan sa pangangalakal at mula sa kanyang mga kababayan naman ay nagkaroon siya ng mabuting pagtingin at pagkakatanyag.

Dahil sa lumapad ang papel ni Bonifacio, gawa ng kanyang mabuting panunungkulan sa Fresell and Company, nangyaring ang kanyang dalawang kapatid na lalaki ay napasok upang mag-lingkod sa Perokaril. Bago nangyari ang himagsikan, si Ciriaco, na siyang sumunod kay Andres, ay naging konduktor ng tren. Si Procopio naman ay naging paktor sa himpilin sa Tatuban.

Nang sumapit si Bonifacio sa katamtamang gulang upang, wika nga'y, lumagay na siya sa tahimik, lumigaw siya sa isang dilag na kapit-bahay niya, na nangangalang Monica (Dorotea Tayson ayon kay G. Jose P. Santos). At siya ang naging unang asawa niya. Nguni't pagkaraan ng mahigit na isang taon ay namatay ang babaing ito sa sakit na ketong. Alam na natin na muling nag-asawa siya, at ang babaing naging ikalawang asawa niya ay si Gregoria de Jesus, anak ni Nicolas de Jesus, na naging gubernadorsilyo ng Kalookan. Ikinasal sila noong 1892 at nagkaroon sila ng isang anak na lalaki, na Andres din ang pangalan, na di nagtagal ang buhay at namatay sa sakit na bulutong. Bininyagan ang batang ito sa katedral sa loob ng Maynila noong 1895 at ang nag-anak ay si Dr. Valenzuela.

Ganito ang pagkakalarawan ni Heneral Santiago Alvarez sa bahay na tinirhan ng magasawang ito.

"Ang bahay na tinitirahan ng Supremo Andres Bonifacio, na takda ang palarindingan at pawid ang bubong, kainaman ang laki bagaman mababa ang silong na nakatayo sa nayon ng San Ignacio o Bambang, ng daang Serbantes (Ngayo'y Abenida Rizal)." Ang nasabing bahay ay nasunog noong ika-9 ng Abril ng taong 1896.

Sa lahat ng mga isinulat ni Bonifacio ay Pilipino* ang kanyang ginamit. Ang kanyang Samahan ng Bayan, Sa Panganga-

*Pilipino -- ito ang bagong katawagan sa Wikang Pambansa -- ang Tagalog.

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lakal ay masasabing gabay o unang hakbang sa pagkakaroon sa ating bayan ng pagtutungtungan sa pagtitinda (cooperative marketing). Sa unang bilang ng Kalayaan, ang tagapamansag ng katipunan, lumabas ang kanyang Ang Dapat Mabatid Ng Mga Tagalog at ang tulang may pamagat na Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa. Isinulat din niya sa Pilipino ang Ultimo Adios ni Dr. Rizal. Ang kanyang mga sulat sa kanyang mga kasama sa himagsikan ay sa tagalog din nakatitik.

Bagaman kakaunti ang mga kasulatan, na titik ng kamay ni Bonifacio, ang mga iyo'y totoong malalaman at mahahalaga, kung ang pag-uusapan ay ang pagka-makabayan at pag-ibig sa tinubuang lupa. Ayon kay G. Epifanio de los Santos, ang mga aral, paninindigan pag-ibig sa bayan, at mga bagay na dapat malaman at isagawa ng ating mga kababayan, na nababanggit na lahat ng mga isinulat ni Dr. Rizal at Plaridel ay nasasaklaw at matatagpuan sa tatlong kasulatan ni Bonifacio: Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog, Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa, at Katungkulang Gagawin ng mga anak ng Bayan.

Bakit siya naging mahusay sa pagsasalita at pagsulat sa wikang tagalog? Nabilang siya sa isang samahan ng mga lumalabas sa dula o moro-moro sa Palomar. Noong 1887, itinatag nila ang Teatro Porvenir, at madalas siyang kasali sa moro-moro na itinatanghal ng kanilang samahan. Ayon kay G. Teodoro A. Agoncillo, binabago niya ang mga pangalan at mga tagpo sa mga dulang kanilang itinatanghal at pinapalitan ang mga iyon ng mga pangalan o katawagan sa tagalog.

Bayaan naman ninyong ako'y maglahad ngayon ng ilang mga pangyayari sa buhay ng ating bayani, na di alam ng marami sa ating mga kababayan.

Ayon kay Espiridiona, ang kanyang Manong Andres ay may hilig sa musika. Pagdating niya sa kanilang bahay mula sa kanyang pinapasukan na nasa harap ng himpilan ng tren sa Tutuban, tatawagin niya si Nonay upang awitin ang mga awit na kanyang itinuro sa kapatid na babae, gaya ng Trobador, La Constancia at Abanico. Samantalang si Nonay ay umaawit, nakaupo naman sa kanyang silya si Andres at makikinig na mabuti. Nagtatawa siya tuwing mapansin niya na mali o wala sa ayos ang pag-awit ng kapatid.

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Hindi maselan sa pagkain si Andres. Kinakain niya ang bawa't idulot sa kanya sa hapag-kainan. Gustong-gusto niya ang isda at gulay. Lagi na lamang may-gana sa pagkain. Dahil sa pagbabasa ni Bonifacio ng mga sulat ng panggagamot, marami siyang bagay na natutuhan sa pagtulong at pagdamay sa may-karamdaman. Kung mayroon siyang kapit-kabay na may sakit o nasugatan, ipinasusundo siya upang tingnan niya at gamutin.

Dahil sa paglilingkod niya sa dalawang bahay-kalakal ng mga ingles, masasabing nakaiintindi siya ng kaunting ingles. Dapat nating malaman na noong huling kalahati ng nakaraang dantaon, ang malaking bahagi ng kalakal dito sa ating bayan ay nasa kamay ng mga ingles. At may mga kawaning pilipino sila na ipinadala nila sa Hongkong, Singapore, at Calcutta upang magsanay sa pangangalakal at sa pagsasalita ng ingles.

Mahigpit si Andres sa kanyang dalawang kapatid na babae. Halimbawa, ayaw niyang makikita si Nonay na nakapamintana kung may nagdadaan sa tapat ng kanilang bahay na mga binata. Kung siya naman ay dinadalaw, upang makausap, ng isang binata, ang gagawin ni Andres ay tatawagin si Maxima at iuutos na matyagan si Nonay at isumbong sa kanya kung makikita sa kanyang kilos o pakikipagusap sa panauhing binata, ang kawalan ng kahinhinan o kabutihang-ugali na dapat taglayin ng isang dalagang tagalog.

Ang totoo, bilang puno ng sambahayan, laging nasa isip ni Andres and kapanatagan at kabutihan ng kanyang mga kapatid. Sapagka't nang itatag niya ang Katipunan ay laging nasa panganib ang kanyang buhay, madalas niyang sabihin kay Emilio Jacinto, ang kanyang kanang kamay, na siya ang titingin at mag-aalaga sa kanyang pamilya kung may anumang kapahamakang darating sa Supremo. Dahil sa tiyaga at mabuting paraan ng pagkupkop ni Bonifacio sa kanyang mga kapatid, ayon kay Espiridiona, hindi naman sila totoong napakahirap, gaya ng pagkakalarawan sa kanila ng ibang mga manunulat.

May mga pangyayari pa sa buhay ng Dakilang Dukha na maari kong banggitin, ngunit ayokong pakahaba ang aking panayam.

Itulot po sana ninyo na, sa aking pagtatapos, ay magbigay

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ako ng ilang kuru-kuro tungkol sa dakilang "Ama ng Demokrasya" sa ating bayan.

Ang buhay ni Bonifacio, noong siya'y wala pang dalawampung taon, ay isang matinding hagupit sa ating mga kabataan ngayon, na tanyag sa tinatawag na juvenile delinquency o teenagers' hooliganism. Sa halip na maglakuwatsa siya, magpasikat, manggulo, at pabayaan ang kanyang mga maliliit na kapatid, tinuruan niya silang magkaroon ng marangal na hanap-buhay, gumawa, magpatulo ng pawis, maging maingat at maayos sa kanilang kilos at ugali, at umibig sa Inang Bayan at sa kanilang mga kababayan.

Noong kanyang kapanahunan, na ang mga lider o nangunguna sa mga kilusang pambayan ay ang mga marurunong at mga may-kaya nating mga kababayan na mga nagtapos sa mga matataas at tanyag na paaralan sa Maynila at sa mga bansa sa Europa, ipinakilala ni Bonifacio na siya man, sa tulong ng mga maliliit at mangmang na mga kababayan niya ay may-kaya, may-lakas, upang hamunin at iwasak ang masamang kapangyarihan ng mga kastila at prayle sa ating bayan. Nguni't ngayon, ano ang ating nasasaksihan? Walang pagkakataon, laluna sa politika at paghawak ng matataas na katungkulan sa pamahalaan, ang mga mahihina, ang mga maliliit. Kaya't ang nangyayari, gaya noong panahong nagdaan, ay ito: ang nagtatamasa ng ating kayamanan, ng pinagpapagalan ng angaw-angaw na mga kababayan natin, ay ang mga nariritong dayuhan at ilang mga kababayan natin na nagsasamantala sa kapangyarihan o kaya'y nakikipagsabuwatan o napakakasangkapan sa mga dayuhan.

Naiisip kaya natin na ang marami sa ating mga kababayang naninirahan sa ating mga sityo o nayon ay namumuhay nang gaya ng pamumuhay ng kanilang mga ninuno nang bago pa lamang sa ating dalampasigan ang mga mananakop na mga kastila? Di ba ng ganitong api at dustang kalagayan ang tinutulang mahigpit ni Bonifacio upang, sa pamamagitan ng lakas at sandata, ay dumating ang BAGONG ARAW na likha ng isang bagong lipunang nais niyang humalili sa bulok na lipunang itinatag at pinapanatiling mahigpit na tatlong daan taon ng mga kastila sa ating Kapuluan?

Sa kanyang Katungkulang Gagawin ng mga Anak ng Bayan ay sinabi niya: "Ang katwiran ang nagsasabi sa atin na

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tanging sa ating sarili lamang tayo dapat umasa at di dapat ipa-ubaya sa kanginuman ang ating mga karapatan sa buhay." Nguni't ano ang ating ginagawa ngayon? Di ba sa ating palagay ay hindi tayo maaring mabuhay kung mawawala ang tulong ng mga Amerikano? Di ba halos ang lahat ng mga sangay ng ating pamahalaan ay ipinauubaya natin sa di-umano'y dalubhasang mga amerikano? Di ba lagi na lamang nating binabanggit na ang ikatutuklas at ikalilinang ng ating mga likas na kayamanan ay mangyayari sa pamamagitan ng sa puhunang dayuhan na ating laging hinihintay? Ano't nangyayari dito na may mga lider tayong humaharap sa bayang manghahalal na ang issues ay ang kanilang pagkamaka-amerikano? Ano't may mga kababayan tayo na ang paniwala ay nasa mga pulahang banyaga ang katubusan ng mga maliliit nating kababayan?

Ano pa ang sinabi niya sa kanyang Katungkulang Gagawin ng mga Anak ng Bayan? Aniya: "Ang katwiran ay itinuturo sa atin na magkaisa ng damdamin, isipin, at layunin, upang mag-karoon tayo ng kailangang lakas upang lupigin ang kasamaan na sumisira sa ating mga kababayan." Tayo ba ngayon. bilang isang bansang nagsasarili, ay may pagkakaisa ng damdamin, isipin, at layunin? Di ba dahil sa pamamayani dito ng mga banyaga ay tayo'y nagkakabahabahagi? Di ba maituturing nating ang Pilipinas, na bayan nating mga Pilipino, ay Paraiso ng mga banyaga sa ating baya'y makialam sa paghubog sa isip ng ating kabataan, sa ating pananampalataya, sa ating pamahamahalaan, sa ating mga balak o gawaing may-aring pangkabuhayan, at sa ating mga pahayagan at himpilan ng mga radyo at television? Ang mga ito ba'y magagawa ng mga pilipino na naninirahan sa Hapon, Estados Unidos, Espanya o Inglatera?

O, totoong kailangan natin at napapanahon pa ang pagtalima at pagpapalaganap sa mga simulain at halimbawa ni Bonifacio at sa "Diwa ng '96."

*

I hold it a noble task to rescue from oblivion those who deserve to be eternally remembered.
-- Pliny the Younger.

2006-01-05T23:19:00.000-05:00

May, Glenn Anthony. "Historian says he's not questioning Bonifacio's heroism -- but historians' methodology -- Part II." Philippine Daily Inquirer 12.168 (Monday, 26 May 1997): E4-5.

[E4]

To summarize, then, Guerrero and Villegas have done nothing to answer the questions I have raised about the Bonifacio letters. They have not established the provenance of the documents; they have not explained why they were altered by the transcriber; they have not explained the inconsistencies in penmanship.

In fact, they have not provided a single reason for doubting my conclusions about Bonifacio letters -- that they are of dubious authenticity and that scholars who rely on them, as Guerrero and Villagas have, do so at their peril.

Fourth, Guerrero and Villegas attack me for calling into question certain parts of Reynaldo Ileto's brilliant book "Pasyon and Revolution."

Although I have great respect for Ileto and his book, I do criticize him because, in my view, he incorrectly links Bonifacio to the Philippine millenarian tradition. Ileto's argument about this linkage rests largely on his lengthy analysis of a prose work entitled "Ang Dabat Mabatid ng Mga Tagalog," which appeared in the Katipunan's newspaper Kalayaan and was often attributed to Bonifacio.

'Retranslated'

In his discussion of the text of that work, Ileto attempts to show that Bonifacio adopted images, metaphors, and vocabulary that could be found in the core texts of earlier popular movements. But, as I demonstrate in my book, there is no convincing evidence that Bonifacio authored "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog"; there is no extant copy of the newspaper Kalayaan; and there is a resonable possibility that the Tagalog text Ileto used (which he found in a published collection of Bonifacio's writings) was not the one printed in the newspaper but rather one retranslated into Tagalog by Jose P. Santos from an earlier Spanish translation.

Having raised those concerns about authorship and authenticity, I then show how Ileto's reliance on a possibly corrupted Tagalog text undermines his argument about the correspondence between metaphors in "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" and the texts generated by other popular movements. I focus on a few words and phrases that figure prominently in Ileto's analysis and argue that, because Ileto unknowingly used a translation of translation, a good deal of slippage occured along the way.

Non-Tagalog

My key point here is that we have no way of knowing whether the words analyzed by Ileto are the ones found in the original version of the newspaper article.

Guerrero and Villegas direct their attention to my discussion of the verbal slippage. Characteristically, they begin with another gratuitous ad-hominem attach: "May, the non-Tagalog speaker, again attempts a critique of linguistic nuance, an exercise for which he is clearly not qualified." They then zero in on a single phrase in the Tagalog text: the words "ang araw ng katuiran," which Ileto translated as "the sun of reason." In my book, I show that, in the Spanish version of the article, the words used -- "el dia de justicia" (or "the day of justice," in English) -- do not come close to the meaning of the Tagalog one.

Guerrero and Villegas make two points about the phrase: that the Tagalog word araw can be translated as both sol ("sun") and dia ("dia"); and that katuiran might be rendered as justicia by a "European" translator. I agree with the first point, but that is not conceding much. I make clear in my book that I am concerned about Ileto's use of the word katuiran ("reason", "straightness") not the word dia.

In my judgement, it is unlikely that the word katuiran was in the Tagalog original, for if it had been, most translation [sic] would have been razón.

The second point, is, literally nonsensical. Here is their argument: The root word of katuiran in Tagalog is tuid ("straight") -- which is derecho in Spanish; the word derecho also refers to "justice and laws, equity and reason"; hence, the "translation of katuiran to justicia indicates a European translator, since the nuance of that word is that social order is based on the rule of laws and not of men." I cannot believe that any reader is likely to find the "nuanced" discussion of the translation issue by Guerrero and Villegas to be more convincing than my own.

Fifth, Guerrero and Villegas are critical of my treatment of Artemio Ricarte, whose memoir is the subject of one of my chapters. This chapter suggests strongly that the account of the Tejeros Assembly in Ricarte's memoir is highly misleading and also that its deficiencies can best be explained by the fact that Ricarte himself played a key role in bringing about Bonifacio's fall from power.

Questionable Ricarte

I am criticized on two counts. First, they claim that I have not told the reader anything new. Second, they accuse me of being "prejudiced" against Ricarte, ostensibly because Ricarte refused to come to terms with the American colonial regime.

Neither criticism should be taken seriously. Having dismissed my findings about Ricarte as "not new," Guerrero and Villages fail to inform us where we can find earlier versions of them. They do not because they can not. Furthermore, I am not opposed to Ricarte because of his opposition to US rule. As any reader of my book "Social Engineering in the Philippines" knows, I am hardly an apologist for US imperialism.

If I appear to be not too well-disposed toward Ricarte, that me be because of Ricarte's questionable actions during the revolution against Spain, not because of his subsequent struggle against the Americans.

Sixth and finally, Guerrero and Villegas blast me because I am, in their eyes, an opponent of the so-called nationalist school of Philippine historigraphy -- and also, by implication, an opponent of Philippine nationalism. I am accused of sneering at Teodoro Agoncillo, the leading figure of the school and the mentor of Guerrero, and of challenging Agoncillo's argument that the revolution of 1896 was a popular movement. Guerrero and Villegas conclude their assessment of my treatment of Agoncillo with a vintage ad hominem assault:

"Only an incompetent alien with pretensions to being a Philippine historian -- or an idiot -- would question the fact that the 1896 [sic] was a popular mass movement led by Bonifacio."

But, misguided or not, that is exactly what I and more than a

[E5]

few other historians have been doing in our scholarship for more than a decade. Guerrero knows this well. Her 1977 doctoral dissertation at the University of Michigan, never published, was one of the first studies to challenge the assertions of Agoncillo during the revolutionary period.

My book about the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War in the province of Batangas confirmed many of Guerrero's earlier observations. And others have come to similar findings -- Schumacher, Medina, Joaquin, and so on. What should be emphasized here is that my criticisms of the nationalist school, which I do not deny, should not be equated with an opposition to Philippine nationalism. Guerrero and Villegas assert that I have an "agenda":

"May's intention is to savage Bonifacio, denigrate the national and democratic nature of the Philippine Revolution, but above all to ridicule the character and abilities of Filipinos to form a nation and to construct a national history."

Lapses

I categorically deny the assertion and I am puzzled by it. I, for one, have never claimed, or even thought, that Guerrero was impelled to question Agoncillo and to provide a more accurate view of the revolutionary period because she was anti-nationalist. Why do Guerrero and Villegas make such a claim about me?

So what can we conclude about the Guerrero-Villegas attack? Most of their criticisms of my book turn out to be, on close examination, assetive reaffirmations of the existing orthodoxy. They criticize me for lapses of logic and then themselves raise illogical argumentation to an art form. Unable to marshall convincing evidence to counter my arguments, they fall back, time and again on name-calling and nastiness. I have suggested at the outset one important reason they have attacked me this way. I will leave it to readers to decide whether that explanation is sufficient.

Two things more need to be said. The first is that I find it regrettable that Guerrero and Villegas have chosen to debate these issues in this way in the national press. I have no axe to grind with the Inquirer for publishing this piece. Obviously, the paper's editors consider it newsworthy. But Guerrero and Villegas, by resorting to smear tactics, have embarrassed all of us who call ourselves historians of the Philippines. They may believe that they have scored points with the public by dealing with a fellow historian in the way that certain politicians deal with their opponents; I suspect that they are mistaken.

My second point is self-serving, but after being subjected to critics like Guerrero and Villegas, I feel that I can be forgiven for making it. Read the book! Whatever else it may be, "Inventing a Hero" is a serious work of history on a subject of undenialble importance.

It questions much received wisdom and raises significant questions about the study of the past in general, and the Philippine past in particular. It also poses challenges not only to the Philippine academic community but to every Philippine citizen. It calls on professional historians to do more research and on informed citizens to read more skeptically.

The response of Guerrero and Villegas to these challenges is to discuss them and mock them. Others of their ilk will doubtless do the same. But I am confident that most Filipinos will rise to the challenges. The simple truth of the matter is that the anachronistic historical notion of the likes of Guerrero and Villegas have finally run their course.

The time has come for a new nationalism, based on more solid evidential foundations, to replace the old, based in some measure on myth.

2006-01-02T01:59:00.000-05:00

Quezon, Manuel L. "Andres Bonifacio, The Great Plebeian." Historical Bulletin 7.3 (September 1963 [1929]): 245-248.

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Andres Bonifacio, The Great Plebeian*

By Manuel L. Quezon

Fellow Countrymen:

In designating my wife to lay the cornerstone of the monument which is to be erected in memory of the Father of the Katipunan and in requesting me to address you on this solemn occasion, you have conferred upon us a signal honor for which we are profoundly grateful.

When Rizal consecrated his doctrines with his precious blood, he was at once venerated by all. But unlike Rizal, Bonifacio was not immediately hailed as a national hero by the intellectual and well-to-do classes of our society. The masses, possessing that unerring Judgment by which they appraise true patriots, were the first ones who elevated Bonifacio to the pedestal of a hero of our people. The observance which we hold today is a solemn declaration by the entire country that Andres Bonifacio is deserving of the undying gratitude of his people, and that the memory of his life and deeds would keep the flame of inspiration ever burning in the hearts of generations yet unborn.

On the very day the Governor General signed the bill that was unanimously passed by the Legislature appropriating funds which, together with the amount raised by popular subscription, will meet the expense for the erection of a fitting monument to Bonifacio. On this day, the Honorable Dwight F. Davis, the representative in these Islands of America, the sovereign nation, joins us in paying this tribute of love and admiration to the Great Plebeian.

Through their writings Rizal, Marcelo H. del Filar and other patriotic toilers of their time infused into the Filipino way of life a deep sense of nationhood, and made our people realize that they were shorn of their rights and were being trodden under the iron heel of oppression. Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto and a handful of brave men launched our people into the battlefield for the vindication of their rights and to free them from the yoke of tyranny.

* From 1940 Bonifacio Day Souvenir Program, pp. 16-19. Speech delivered by the then Senate President M. L. Quezon at Balintawak, November 30, 1929).

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It can be truly said, therefore, that Rizal was the creator of Filipino nationality, and Bonifacio the redeemer of our country's liberties.

To appreciate Andres Bonifacio's love of liberty for this country, to understand his faith in the justice of his people's cause and his concept of the value of human dignity as being far above life itself, it is necessary for us to deliberate upon them magnitude of his task. His mission was to emancipate a people who had lived for centuries under foreign rule -- a people unorganized, unarmed, and with but a nascent national spirit -- from a government then considered by a majority of the Filipinos as so very powerful that it could command every instrumentality to suppress any uprising of the people under subjection. And Andres Bonifacio was undoubtedly one of those extraordinary men who are born to carry out "enterprises of great pith and moment" that would demolish unjust empires and deliberate subject peoples. Imagine Bonifacio as a man born of poor and humble parents, reared in privation, always toiling hard in order to earn a living for himself and his family, and later conceiving the idea of challenging the power and might of a whole government and carrying out his plan with undaunted boldness, and you have before you the life and deeds of the Great Plebeian.

Let it be known, however, that he did not immediately think of revolution. A man with a high sense of responsibility, leading an austere life, modest to the point of humility, exhibiting a great love for God and his fellowmen, -- as can be rapidly seen when we read his decalogue -- he was a man of peace and he could not have failed to be horrified at the tragic consequences of a resort to arms.

But Bonifacio had read the history of the French Revolution. He understood and professed the new doctrine embodying the right of the people to appeal to force as a last resort in order to destroy governments which do not fulfill the objects for which they have been instituted. Therefore, when he saw that the peaceful means used by the La Solidaridad, by Marcelo H. del Pilar, Rizal and the Liga Filipina, of which he was a very active member, were not only fruitless but harmful because they increased and aggravated the outrages and injustices committed by the rulers, he decided with firm resolve to organize and lead the Revolution. He founded the Katipunan, the first organization that really worked for the liberation of the country.

Nothing depicts and portrays the character of Andres Bonifacio, the man and the patriot, so well as his decalogue wherein he sum-

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marized what he considered to be "the duties of the sons of the country."

The decalogue reads as follows:

1. Love God full-heartedly.
2. Bear always in mind that true love of God is love of country, love which is also true love of man.
3. Bear always in mind that the true measure of honor and of charity is to die in defense of your country.
4. Serenity, constancy, reason, and faith in whatever act or endeavor, crown with success every desire.
5. Guard, as you would your honor, the mandates and aims of the K. K. K.
6. It is incumbent on all that he who runs a serious risk in complying with his duties should be protected at the sacrifice of life and riches.
7. Let the achievement of each, either in self-control or in compliance with duty, be an example to his fellowmnan.
8. Help to the limit of your endurance, share with your wealth with the needy or unfortunate.
9. Diligence in your daily work to earn a living is the true expression of love and affection for yourself, for your wife, for your brother, and for your countryman.
10. Believe in the chastisement of the perverse and the treacherous and in the reward of all good work. Believe also that the aims of the K. K. K. are the gifts of God; for the hopes of the country are also the hopes of God.

Emilio Jacinto and later Apolinario Mabini, also wrote their own decalogues. In modesty Bonifacio preferred Jacinto's decalogue to his own, and adopted it for the use of the Katipunan. But even without making any comparison among these three documents, it cannot be denied that the decalogue of Bonifacio would be sufficient, if observed by every Filipino as the Great Plebeian had, to make our country the most exemplary nation in the world.

Andres Bonifacio was not a demagogue. Having dedicated his life to the cause of liberty and being resolved to die in the vindication of the rights of his people, he spoke to them by their own duties rather than of their rights. He knew that for the enjoyment of true liberty the citizens should first know and observe their duties toward God, toward the country and toward their fellowmen. The spirit of abnegation and sacrifice which underlies his teachings should challenge our attention. His purpose was to inculcate among his countrymen the sense of duty and the practice of civic virtues even at the risk of one's life.

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Coming from the masses and earning his living by the sweet of his brow, he proclaimed in his decalogue the dignity of labor in the face of a society which at that time considered it as degrading.

To my mind if Bonifacio had done nothing else but to bequeath to the Fiiipino people the doctrines of his decalogue and the example of a life consecrated to these doctrines, that would have been still sufficient to make him worthy of our perpetual veneration. Taken together, the lives of national heroes constitute a whole gospel to a people. We may say, therefore, that Bonifacio's life supplements that of Rizal. The teachings of both are necessary for a thorough grasp and comprehension of the doctrine of patriotism, that solid patriotism which includes both the thought and the deed. If we seek inspiration for art, for poetry and for science; if we need to be steeped in the essense of the purest nationalism, -- the nationalism of rigid and austered principles --, if we wish to pay homage to the history of our country in order to reconstruct and enrich it, and to learn to improve our customs and institutions through the processes of progress, of morality and of culture; in short, if we wish to find the way to light and redemption through the arts of civilization, then Rizal is the guide, the apostle, the hero without peer. If we want to put forth our own efforts and invoke our own dignity, because we find that the doors of opportunity and improvement are closed to us; if, seeing around us nothing but injustice and oppression, we want to work out our own salvation by concerted and united action; if we see that the law is not obeyed, that right is trampled upon and the fundamental principles of liberty, equality and fraternity have ceased to impel human action, then the apostle, the guide, the fitting hero is Andres Bonifacio.

In honoring the memory of the Great Plebeian, we also honor the Philippine Revolution. Bonifacio was the embodiment of that Revolution. His was the great mind which conceived it; his, the iron will which was determined to carry it through; his, the forceful arm which executed it. It is for this reason that the monument which is to be raised here and whose cornerstone we are laying today will perpetuate not only the memory of Andres Bonifacio. It will also perpetuate the memory of our Revolution which is the most sublime adventure ever embarked upon by the Fiiipino people, the most glorious achievement, of a whole race which marked it as virile, heroic, and worthy of the blessings of liberty.

2006-01-01T01:50:00.000-05:00

May, Glenn Anthony. "Afterthoughts: Nationalism and Myth." Inventing a Hero: The Posthumous Re-Creation of Andres Bonifacio. Madison, Wisonsin: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996. 163-6, 193.

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Afterthoughts

Nationalism and Myth

What remains of the Philippine national hero, Andres Bonifacio? The data we have about his early years turn out to be undocumented, and hence unproven. Some of them may be true, but we have no way of determining which are and which are not. His famous writings -- the newspaper article "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog," the poems that schoolchildren have committed to memory, the translation of Rizal's poem, and the others -- cannot be shown to be his compositions. He may have written some of them; then, again, he may not have. Bonifacio's letters to Jacinto -- the core of his personal correspondence and, up to now, a major source on Bonifacio's role in the Philippine Revolution -- also may not have been his literary products. Indeed, my examination of their provenance, physical appearance, and linguistic properties suggests that they are probable forgeries. The standard account of the most important event in his life, the Tejeros assembly, has been exposed as a deception designed to hide the true role played at Tejeros by the author of the narrative, the former revolutionary Artemio Ricarte. Bonifacio's personality turns out to be a historian's imaginative construction. The claim that he was intimately connected with the Philippine millenarian tradition cannot be supported. In the end, the Bonifacio we have before us is mostly an illusion, the product of undocumented statements, unreliable, doctored, or otherwise spurious sources, and the collective imagination of several historians and a memoirist.

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On one level, the story I have told here can be read as merely a cautionary tale about the perils of doing historical research -- a case study, as it were, of the problems of document authentication, the deficiencies of some secondary literature, the dangers of relying on published sources, and the like. On another level, however, it is a tale about nationalism and the function of history in emerging nation-states. In my view, to understand the invention of Andres Bonifacio, we must recognize that the process of posthumous re-creation was as much concerned with the promotion of Philippine nationalism as it was with historical reconstruction. Let me return briefly to the question of nationalism.

In his important book on the subject, Hugh Seton-Watson pointed out that nationalist movements generally have three objectives: independence ("the creation of a sovereign state in which the nation is dominant"), national unity ("the incorporation within the frontiers of this state of all groups which are considered, by themselves, or by those who claim to speak for them, to belong to the nation"), and nation building ("to build a nation within an independent state, by extending down to the population as a whole the belief in the existence of the nation, which, before independence was won, was held by only a minority").¹ The first objective is pursued before the nation is created, the second either before or after, and the third only after.

Three of the Philippine biographers of Bonifacio -- Artigas, de los Santos, and Santos -- all of whom lived in a colonial state ruled by the United States, focused on the first two objectives: independence and national unity. Their writings, which honored the memory of an earlier, anticolonial struggle and transformed the life of the leader of that struggle into a classic hero story, were intended to build pride in things Filipino and keep alive the notion of an independent Philippines. By attempting to promote nationalist feeling in a colonial environment, they directly attacked the traditional order. Still, there were limits to their commitment to the nationalist cause -- none of them suggested manning the barricades, and two, Artigas and de los Santos, depended on the colonial regime for their livelihoods.

Although Agoncillo was only five years younger than Santos, he should properly be classified as a historian of a different era. Whereas Santos wrote virtually all his books in the 1930s, all of Agoncillo's historical writings were produced after 1946, the year in which the

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Philippines received its independence from the United States. Not surprisingly, then, his objectives were different from those of the prewar historians: with independence no longer at issue he focused on national unity and nation building. The demands affected his construction of Bonifacio. To bind the new and heal the festering old wounds, he found it necessary to expand the pantheon of heroes and make room for the once discredited Emilio Aguinaldo. Thus was born the two Bonifacios, the hero of Manila and the demon of Cavite.

Ileto, too, was a participant in this nationalist discourse, and he also significantly altered our view of Bonifacio. But he was very different kind of nationalist. When he wrote Pasyon and Revolution, the Philippine state had been independent for more than thirty years. But in the eyes of Ileto and other college-educated people of his generation many citizens were not being well served by it: true nation building had not taken place because a majority of the people were excluded or exploited. With Ileto, the Bonifacio story, somewhat transformed, became a vehicle for both social change and a new type of nation building. Ileto moved the locus of nationalism from the
dominant elites to the common people.

Throughout this book, I have repeatedly used the word myth to describe the stories that have been told about Andres Bonifacio and mythmakers to describe the nationalist storytellers. No doubt, some readers will object to such usage, believing that it betrays an unduly critical stance toward both. But, in fact, I have chosen those words because they accurately describe the phenomena I have examined.

Michael Kammen, who has written much on the subjects of myth, tradition and heroes in order to explain a society's cosmology or sense of identity tells us that myths have at least three characteristics: they are likely to be fabulous, they typically involve a story, and the story is likely to concern "deities, demigods, or heroes in order to explain a society's cosmology or sense of identity."² Most myths are of indeterminate origin, but that is not essential. The best-known mythical stories of the American past -- the tales about George Washington invented by Weems -- can be dated fairly precisely, as can some of those about Jackson and Lincoln.

The works of Artigas, de los Santos, Santos, Agoncillo, and even to some extent Ileto, in addition to being historical studies and contributions to an ongoing nationalist discourse, are, at their core, modern-day Philippine varieties of "hero myths" -- stories in the

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tradition of Greek tales about Theseus and Herakles and Indian ones about Krishna and Karna.³ But, within that genre, they fall within a distinct, somewhat underexplored, contemporary category -- the national hero myth, the national hero being a relatively modern mythical figure since the nation-state is itself of recent vintage. Not surprisingly, then, both in form as well as content, many of the stories told by the Philippine mythmakers bear a striking resemblance to those found in Weems's biography of Washington and other early books about the heroes of the American Revolution. The hero's humble origins and intellectual powers are emphasized, even when, as in the case of Washington, the evidence does not necessarily support the claims. Also emphasized are the hero's virtues and strength of character.⁴ For American and Filipino mythmakers alike, the hero served as a model to be emulated.

But national heroes differ from truly legendary heroes in one important respect. As modern historical figures, their lives can be studied by historians. Furthermore, historians being what they are, the lives of the great and presumably great are much more likely to be studied and restudied, and then restudied again, than are the lives of anyone else. If modern-day hero stories are based on weak or nonexistent evidential foundations, it seems inevitable that they will eventually be exposed.

The exposure of hero myths invariably causes pain, since all of us, regardless of our nationality, have a deeply felt need for heroes. Doubtless, admirers of the mythical Bonifacio will find it difficult to accept the notion that he was probably not the humble plebeian, the literary master, and the superpatriot he has long been thought to be. Admirers of the mythmakers may find it just as difficult to credit my assertions that their writings are deficient. But I can only hope that any distress experienced will soon subside and that the loss of the mythical Bonifacio will not be mourned too long, because much important work remains to be done. Almost a century after his death, the time has come to devote our undivided attention to uncovering the real Andres Bonifacio.

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Notes

Afterthoughts

1. Hugh Seton-Watson, Nations and States: An Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of Nationalism (Boulder: Westview Press, 1977), 3. For other valuable efforts to define (and explain) nationalism, see Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, rev. ed. (London: Verso, 1991), 5-7; and Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983), 1-7.

2. Kammen, Mystic Chords, 25.

3. The books of Joseph Campbell deal most extensively with hero myths. See Robert A. Segal, Joseph Campbell: An Introduction (New York: Garland Publishing, 1987), 1-29; Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2d ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968); and David Adams Leeming, The World of Myth (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 217-311.

4. Weems, Washington, xv, xliii-xliv, lii-liii; Michael Kammen, A Season of Youth: The American Revolution and the Historical Imagination (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), 41-43, 51-52.

2005-10-17T20:27:00.000-04:00

Richardson, Jim. "Roster of Katipuneros at Balintawak, August 1896." 2005.

Amidst all the debate about precisely when and where the revolution started, historians have often neglected to ask exactly who gathered in Balintawak or thereabouts in August 1896. In the absence of a complete roster – clearly an impossibility at this distance in time – the fullest listing is to be found in an interview given by the KKK veteran Guillermo Masangkay to the Manila newspaper Bagong Buhay in 1952.¹ In this interview, Masangkay recalled the names of 56 men who had met in Balintawak prior to the first encounters with Spanish forces. In the great majority of cases, he also recalled their occupations, and it is fascinating to note that nearly half the patriots on his list worked in some capacity or other for branches of the Spanish administration. The three 'government secret agents', it is presumed, had in the preceding months been supplying useful information to the Katipunan and misinformation to the Spaniards.

Masangkay’s list is reproduced below; the occupational descriptions have been translated into English from the original mix of Tagalog and Spanish, and in a few cases have been amplified. Since the list was reconstructed from memory more than fifty years after the event, erroneous inclusions are likely and omissions are inevitable. Any corrections or other comments will be most welcome.

Aguedo del Rosario
Apolonio Cruz
Alejandro Santiago
Deogracias Fajardo
Juan Fajardo

Tomas Alegre
Pio H. Santos
Patricio Belen
Crispulo Chacon
Lorenzo Martinez
Tomas Villanueva

Procopio Bonifacio

Rogelio Borja
Isaac del Carmen
Hilario Sayo

Melecio Ruestra
Pastor Santos

Guillermo Masangkay
Pedro Zabala

Macario Sakay

Salustiano Cruz

Juan de la Cruz

Emilio Jacinto

Andres Bonifacio

Nicomedes Carreon

Miguel Resurreccion

Vicente Leyva

Cipriano Pacheco

Briccio Pantas
Teodoro Plata
Jose Trinidad
Hermogenes Plata

Tomas Remigio
Pantaleon Torres
Vicente Molina

Enrique Pacheco

Faustino Manalac

Calixto Santiago
Restituto Javier
Hermenegildo Reyes

Valentin Lagasca
Eugenio Santos
Francisco Carreon
Sarhento Marcelo

Roman Ramos
Tito Miguel

Julio Navarro
Alejandro Andaya
Marcelo Badell

Geronimo Cristobal

Cosme Taguyod
Rafael Gutierrez

Estanislao Vargas
Apolonio Samson

Pio Valenzuela

Ramon Bernardo

Printer at the Diario de Manila
Printer at the Diario de Manila
Printer at El Resumen
Printer
Printer

Master cigar maker
Master tobacco worker
Tobacco worker
Tobacco worker
Tobacco worker
Tobacco worker

Railway baggage-master

Mechanic
Mechanic
Mechanic

Draftsman
Draftsman

Kuridor [meaning unknown]
Kuridor [meaning unknown]

Sales agent [personero]

Master tailor

Barber; playwright

Student

Warehouse employee at Fressel & Co.

Salesman at Casa Chupre

Grass (fodder) cutter

Milkman

Clerk

Assistant to Court of First Instance judge
Clerk, Mindoro Court of First Instance
Clerk, Tondo Court of First Instance
Court clerk

Government treasury clerk
Government treasury clerk
Government treasury caretaker

Manila city government clerk

Manila port administration clerk

Customs official
Customs official
Customs official

Customs guard sergeant
Customs guard sergeant
Customs guard
Customs guard

Government arsenal employee
Government arsenal employee

Government secret agent
Government secret agent
Government secret agent

Army corporal

Fire Department lieutenant
Fire Department captain

Property owner
Property owner

Physician

Municipal captain of Pandacan

¹"Unang sigaw, unang labanan sa paglaya," Bagong Buhay (25 August 1952).

2005-10-12T14:00:00.000-04:00

Taylor, John R. M. "The Philippine Insurrection of 1896-97." The Philippine Insurrection against the United States: A Compilation of Documents with Notes and Introduction. Pasay City: Eugenio Lopez Foundation, 1971 [1906]. 61-78.

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Chapter III

The Philippine Insurrection of 1896-97

The Filipino insurrection of 1896-97 was planned and carried out under the auspices of a society, local to the Philippines, called the Katipúnan. According to Spanish writers on the subject, this organization was the outgrowth of a series of associations, formed by what afterwards became the revolutionary clique with the expressed purpose of securing reforms in the government of the Philippines, but whose unexpressed and ultimate object was to obtain the independence of the archipelago. In order to accomplish this purpose, a systematic attack was made on the monastic orders in the Philippines to undermine their prestige and to destroy their influence upon the great mass of the population. Among the societies actively opposed to the friars and perhaps to Spain the first formed was the Tagálog Center of the Spanish Orient, lodges of which had been established in the islands some five or six years before this formidable insurrection by Miguel Morayta and others, who had used similar methods to combat the influence of the friars in the Spanish peninsula. The Spanish Orient, which has no affiliation with and is not recognized by English and American Masons, may be regarded as the source of that propaganda in the Philippines which afterwards developed into the sanguinary Katipúnan. A grand master of the Spanish Orient presided over the Carbonari of Italy. Its proselytes formed the Katipúnan of the Philippines.

The native, with all the oriental susceptibility to ritual and to secrecy, was attracted and held as he could have been in no other wav. The attraction of the Catholic influence was successfully neutralized. The rapid growth of the lodges of the Spanish Orient convinced the leaders of the movement that secret societies were the proper medium for disseminating their influence. Accordingly, José Rizal, the Filipino author and reformer, came into the islands and organized from among the more intelligent classes what was called the “Philippine League," a society whose platform consisted of the round and sonorous sentences usual in the announcements of Filipino propaganda and of customary vagueness. Generally speaking, a system of education and reforms was to be provided which should teach the Philippines to stand alone. Its ultimate purpose was stated by the Spanish Government, when shortly after its foundation its existence was

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discovered by the authorities, to be to secure the independence of the Philippines from Spain. Its president was deported. Rizal, himself, had already been exiled to Dapitan, a lonely village in the southern islands. The society dissolved, or, perhaps, better said, shrank back into the Tagálog lodges whence it had originated.

Marcelo del Pilar, Rizal's most formidable rival, set out to organize in the Philippines a similar society to work for the same end, but which he believed he could make more successful by limiting his recruiting to the less intelligent classes, who would form a more powerful and more easily wielded body than the one formed from the timid theorizers and wealthy half-Spaniards of the earlier project had proved to be. Only a few of the well-to-do middle class were admitted; its members believed in action and action of the most drastic character, and felt a fierce scorn for mere political agitation not backed up by the rifle and the knife. Thus in 1894 or in 1892 the Katipúnan was born. In two years its lodges were the controlling factor in every Tagálog town. Its officers, as well as members, were drawn from the uneducated classes. Its directorate passed from the control of one to another, until it was seized on the 1st of January, 1896, by the most powerful and radical member, one Andrés Bonifacio, a night watchman in a warehouse on the Pásig River, a man of little education, keen intelligence, passionate and courageous. The poor were to have their brother's wealth distributed among them; the native priests were to succeed their Spanish preceptors, and the native clerk his peninsular superior; the ambitious Spanish or Chinese mestizo would no longer have to give way to men of unmixed Spanish blood; out of race hatred and envy and blood lust there was to be born, by slaughter and pillage, a Malay republic.

The plans of Bonifacio were far-reaching. He attempted to negotiate with Japan. He brought all the other influential Filipino exiles into his fold and sought to win the support of Rizal. He sent an agent to the place of exile of that leader to aid him to escape and to ask him to return and lead the Katipúnan in open revolt. Doctor Rizal refused. He did not favor open and bloody revolt, and thought the Philippines were not yet ready for their independence. Bonifacio resolved to proceed without him.

The time was propitious. The army of the Philippines which, at the beginning of 1896, had consisted of 18,000 men, of whom only 2,000 were Spaniards, was to be increased to a force of 21,600 men, including the civil guard. The strictly military force was to be composed of 17,659 men, of whom 3,005 were to be Spaniards. This reorganization was being made. Apparently the increase was largely in the Spanish noncommissioned officers serving in native regiments, which must have caused dissatisfaction among the native soldiers, as it limited their opportunities for promotion. Such discontent caused by similar changes was at least one of the causes of the mutiny in Cavite in 1872. Bonifacio probably reckoned on such discontent increasing his adherents in the army, and assured his followers that when he gave the signal for the uprising the native troops would

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join him with their arms. What was of at least equal importance to the success of the plot was the fact that the army, as in 1872, was engaged in operations against the Moros in Mindanao. At the end of August, 1896, there were available for use in Manila only some 300 Spanish artillery, Spanish detachments amounting to some 400 men, including the sailors which could be landed from the ships of war in port, and about 2,000 native soldiers, the greater part of whom belonged to detachments of the regiments in the field. A force so constituted is hardly available for anything but guard duty, and in case of a serious outbreak a force so small would be immobilized by the necessity of preventing an outbreak in the city of Manila and an attack on the arsenal, the treasury, and the foreign banks.

Reports had been made to the Spanish authorities during the summer of 1896 of an extensive conspiracy among the natives, but that they did not consider it serious is shown by the fact that no troops were withdrawn from Mindanao. On August 19 a native denounced the plot to the Spanish parish priest of Tondo, one of the districts of Manila, and the next day documentary evidence of a far-reaching conspiracy was in the hands of the authorities. This time the evidence was of such a nature that it could not be ignored; link after link of the hidden chain of intrigue revealed itself to the investigators, and when the extent and murderous character of the plotting were revealed arrests and trials followed swiftly. Many Europeans in Manila, rightly or wrongly, believed that all men there of white blood had been marked for murder. Documents were captured which, if authentic, showed this. Bonifacio escaped. Hundreds of others marked by the local authorities for their membership in secret societies were forced to flee for their lives.

Bonifacio was thus able to commit a large faction to an openly hostile position, but the native troops, on the whole, stood firm. He fled to Caloocan to avoid capture. The Katipúnan came out from the cover of secret designs, threw off the cloak of any other purpose, and stood openly for the independence of the Philippines. Bonifacio turned his lodges into battalions, his grand masters into captains, and the supreme council of the Katipúnan into the insurgent government for the Philippines. He himself was dictator. The insurrection declared, he put himself at the head of those of his people whom he was able hastily to collect about him at Caloocan, and sent out order!; for a general uprising on August 29 throughout such portions of the island of Luzón as the Katipúnan had organized.

The governor-general, realizing that if the insurrection was not promptly crushed it would be joined by a constantly increasing number of the disaffected, on August 25 sent a small column to attack the rebels at Caloocan. The Spanish force in the city was so small that nearly half of this column was composed of sailors from the flagship. No decisive result was obtained; the rebels scattered only to unite again, and on August 30 made a daring attempt, under Bonifacio, to seize the powder magazine at San Juan del Monte in the suburbs of Manila, but

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were repulsed by the detachment which guarded it. They then attacked Santa Mesa, but the detachments of Spanish and native troops which had been hurried there succeeded in driving them back. Some leaders of the rebels were captured, brought before a military court and publicly executed. So few Spanish soldiers were available for this action that a body of 100 men was under the personal command of the Spanish general next in rank to the governor-general. This attack, in which the rebels had been led almost into the streets of the city, made the authorities realize how serious were the conditions by which they were confronted. The governor-general ordered troops from Mindanao, asked for reinforcements from Spain, called upon the Spaniards of Manila to volunteer for the defense of the country, and proclaimed 8 provinces of Luzón in a state of war .

[Scrawled at this point on the margin of the third proof is the following: Map No. 1 here.]

In Cavite, on August 31, the seacoast towns rose under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo, a young radical, who was already a recognized leader among the local disaffected. The Spaniards had not expected this outbreak in Cavite. Aguinaldo had personally assured the governor of the province of his devotion to Spain (p. --), and when it came isolated Spanish officers were killed and their families carried into captivity. A conspiracy was discovered in the town of Cavite to release the prisoners and kill the Spaniards. Thirteen men found to have engaged in it were at once tried and shot. By the middle of September Manila Province was in ablaze, and Cavite Province, beyond the walls of the port, was in the hands of the insurgents. The Spaniards had taken refuge in Manila and the town of Cavite, where they could be safe within the walls from the attack of the rebels, who, as yet, had few firearms, and were armed chiefly with lances and with knives. The difficulty of the situation was much increased by the fact that the defense of these two places -- until reinforcements arrived from Spain -- would be chiefly in the hands of native soldiers, among whom it was known that agents of the Katipúnan had been at work. The silence with which the propaganda of revolt had been carried on, and the success which it had met, must have filled the Spaniards with the gravest doubts of the fidelity of the native troops which, for nearly the first month of the insurrection, were the chief guarantee for their lives. The troops of the old native regiments -- the men who for years had followed Spanish officers -- were, on the whole, faithful, and it was largely due to them that Manila and Cavite were held until the arrival of reinforcements.

By the end of September all the troops which could be spared from the south had been concentrated in Manila and Cavite, but Governor-General Blanco, although he probably had some 6,000 men, did not consider himself strong enough to move against Cavite Province, which was rapidly being turned into an intrenched camp [44]; the towns, rivers, defiles, and a multitude of positions in the interior were being fortified by more or less united works, depending upon the strategic loca-

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tion of each point, while an infinite number of parapets and every kind of obstacle were being thrown up to render the roads of communication useless. Two lines of trenches, one continuous and one with intervals, occupied the frontiers. Intrenchments were constructed on the banks of streams and such places where roads and defiles leading into the interior could be enfiladed, and usually there were several parallel lines of intrenchments, those in the rear commanding those in their front. Within these exterior lines the towns were defended by intrenchments constructed at points commanding the roads leading to them; pitfalls were dug and barricades were built in the streets. The defensive possibilities of stone buildings were made use of and increased. Sluices in the dams across the rivers were contrived so as to produce inundations when desired. A continuous line of intrenchments was built along the seacoast, and at intervals there were casemates where the defenders, the sentinels, and even the fishermen could take refuge from the fire of Spanish war ships.

All of these preparations greatly increased the defensive strength of the province, whose natural features are such as to render difficult the operations of any but native troops [41]. It abounds in rivers which run parallel to each other at short distances, their beds being the bottoms of deep ravines, which present excellent positions for defense. The roads are few and bad. In many places troops would be forced to move upon trails and foot paths. The trails and roads alike are crossed at frequent intervals by streams and bordered by dense growth, affording opportunity for the ambush of small parties. There were a number of well-constructed bridges in the province, but on the approach of the Spaniards these were partly or wholly destroyed by the insurgents. Cavite Province was the center of the insurrection. With its reoccupation by Spain organized resistance could be crushed down.

The population of Cavite Province was about 141,250. According to the system of organization employed by the insurgents, everyone of these people had his place in the scheme of defense. For military purposes, the territory was divided into five parts, called zones of war, having as capitals Siláng, Imus, Bacoor, San Francisco de Malabon, and Alfonso. Each of these zones was defended by an army, which was divided into an active and a volunteer force, the former comprising all the fighting men and the latter all those engaged outside of the ranks in works of a mechanical character. The active army was organized into regiments, companies, and batteries, performed duties in the trenches, towns, and on the roads, and also patrolled the territory to check desertions and disaffection. In turn, the companies were divided into soldiers with firearms and those without, the duty of the latter -- in the proportion of some five to each rifleman -- being to keep themselves close to the rear of the firing-line and secure the guns of men who became disabled, it being also required that such reserves should be provided with spears and bolos (a native knife), to attack with the riflemen when the order was given to charge the Spaniards. To the batteries were committed duties pertaining to the care and use of the rude na-

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tive cannon, or "lantakas," the firing of mines and fougasses, and the preservation of the gunpowder. According to Spanish writers, the insurgents had obtained their firearms from deserters, from the detachments which they had overpowered at the outbreak of the insurrection, by capture, and by purchase. The statement has been made that at the beginning of 1897 they had 15,000 of all descriptions. The estimate is probably too high. Gen. Primo de Rivera stated that at the close of that year he did not think that they had more than 1,500, which estimate is undoubtedly too low [45].

The function of the volunteer army was the gathering and storing of food supplies and obtaining iron and copper from every possible source for the construction of arms. It was also their duty to search the surface of the fields for projectiles which, fired by the navy at the trenches along the coasts, had failed to explode; to carry food to the troops on guard or on duty in the defenses, and with those of the active army; and the women and children; since when works of this kind were concerned neither age, sex, nor condition could procure exemption, to strengthen daily the defenses and throw up others on suitable sites.

Some Spanish writers on the subject think that, owing to the influx of the disaffected from other provinces, there were 105,000 men in arms in Cavite Province. The estimate is high, but it is undoubtedly a fact that the Spanish forces operating there were opposed, not by an army, but by a people in arms.

Within these lines the men of greater intelligence dreamed of a government to be conducted for their exclusive benefit under the name of a republic. The great mass of the people who had gathered there knew nothing of a republic. There is no word for it in Tagalog, Bicol, Visayan, Ilocano, or any of the languages which the natives speak, and which the far greater part of them speak alone. The longing of this great mass was to be rid of the restrictions and the centralized form of government established by Spain. They wanted to be free, which meant that they wanted to go back to the wild life of the hills. The Malay of pure blood is not a dweller in large towns. If left to himself, he builds his house -- in many cases hardly more than a shelter -- upon some stream, and gathering his family about him, lives upon what fish he has caught in his own nets and the crop he has raised with his own hands. But even then he must have a leader -- a man who can speak to him in his own tongue and awaken that longing to obey, that lust of devotion which smoulders in his soul. These men -- the "taos" -- form the great mass of the people. Many of them have lived for generation after generation upon the same land, and when not under the control of the friars, under the domination of that class of natives who call themselves “ilustrados" (enlightened men), whose blood is, in almost every case, partly Spanish or partly Chinese. The supremacy of the friars was passing, and men of this class intended to be, in all things, the heirs to their domain. The control exercised by this class of “ilustrados" is absolute, and it is outside of the law. It is not possible for an American to understand why it is that a Filipino who happens to be rich and to know

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Spanish and to have been educated in Manila, is, from the possession or those advantages, able to exact absolute and willing obedience, from the men who live about him, an obedience which extends in many cases to a perfect willingness to commit murder, under the conviction that the "ilustrado" is responsible and not the murderer, who has done his mere duty in passively obeying the orders of the man whom he looks up to, and who, in some things at least, seems to have succeeded to the absolute and paternal power of the tribal chiefs who now rule in Mindanao and Joló, and who, prior to the coming of the Spaniards, ruled on all the seacoasts of the wide-flung Archipelago.

The idea of forming a republic or of adopting the titles appropriate to a republic to designate the functionaries of a Malay despotism was an afterthought. The men who, in August, 1896, raised the standard of revolt, the fighting men like Bonifacio and Aguinaldo, did not know enough of the outside world to realize its expediency. Aguinaldo learned it when he was joined by men who had been better trained than he in Spanish methods of thought, and who had read the history of France and Spain. They found it was expedient to cover their system of absolutism with the name of a republic. It was probably a republic as they understood it, but there seems no reason for doubting that in September, 1896, Vito Belarmino, one of the most prominent of the insurgents, called himself Vito, viceroy of Siláng, one of the largest towns of Cavite Province, and to the very end of the so-called Filipino Republic the "royal family" was a common form of reference to the mother and wife and child of Emilio Aguinaldo, and over and over again the orders of the President of the Republic were spoken of by his followers as "royal decrees."

Such a blind devotion to their leaders on the part of the great mass of the people does not make for the security of government. There is always the probability of the appearance of a new enchanter able to weave a more powerful spell, and such men did appear in 1898 and 1899, whose opposition to Aguinaldo had to be suppressed by arms at a time when it was of the utmost importance to the group about him to show that they, and they alone, represented the aspirations of the Filipino people.

A republic is a government founded upon the consent of the governed. To be anything more than a name it must embody, in working form, the aspirations of the people. To found one it is not sufficient to juggle with words and call the grant of such rights as a clique in power finds it expedient to bestow upon the people whom they rule the establishment of a republican form of government. Republics are the result of a slow growth. To exist in anything more than name they are the expression of the aspirations of the whole people to be partners in the State; the establishment of a republic in fact is something more than a feat of political legerdemain.

By the end of September, 1896, the government within the insurgent lines was in the hands of Emilio Aguinaldo, who called himself the “generalissimo;" next in rank was Andres Bonifacio, “el supremo" (the supreme master) of the Katipúnan, who, as delegate of the generalis-

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simo, ruled the three districts into which Cavite Province had been divided -- the vice-royalty of Siláng, a district with a capital at Imus, and a district with its capital at San Francisco de Malabón. Each of these districts had a head. assisted by a council of government, among the members of which were many of the future generals of the Filipino Republic.

Until the 1st of November General Blanco did not consider himself strong enough to take the offensive, but the few troops in Manila and Cavite did not remain inactive. They made some reconnaissances in the vicinity of those cities, but their numerical inferiority exposed them to checks which increased the audacity of the insurgents. In a short while it was seen that the only possible thing to do was to wait, and in the meanwhile restrain the people of Manila and Cavite, who were being excited by insurgent emissaries.

Although the nature of the territory in the hands of the insurgents was favorable to defense, yet the manner which that territory lay with respect to the surrounding provinces made it comparatively easy to isolate Cavite Province and the portions of Laguna and Batangas provinces to which the insurrection had spread. The Spaniards were masters of the sea and of Lakes Taal and Bay. General Blanco had the town of Cavite put into a condition of defense and works were constructed on the neck connecting it with the mainland. Two passages from the insurgent territory were partly barred by the Pásig and Pansipit rivers, which connect Lakes Bay and Taal with the sea. General Blanco established a line from Lian to Balayan, intended to cut off from the insurgents the eastern part of Batangas Province. Then he strongly occupied Taal and Saint Nicolas in order to guard the passage of the Pansipit. North of Lake Taal, where the country was more difficult to observe, he garrisoned San Domingo and established in advance of it the line Calamba-Tanauan-Bañadero, intended to protect the provinces of Laguna and Batangas.

On the side of, Manila he had the Pásig patrolled and further covered the approach to the capital by placing in a state of defense the line Parañaque-Las Piñas.
Daily reconnaissances were made from the points thus occupied; on their side the rebels made constant attacks on the circle which enclosed them. The capture of Nasugbu, the defense of Lian, combats at Pansipit and to the north of Lake Taal, the capture of Talisay by the insurgents, attacks on Bilog-Bilog and on San Domingo, are the principal military events during this period of expectation.

Reinforcements arrived from Spain and, little by little, grew accustomed to the war. The daily operations developed cohesion in the different commands, in which the commanders and soldiers, taken right and left in the Peninsula, had not had time to know each other. By the end of October, when General Blanco must have had a force of 6,000 Spanish troops and 3 native regiments available for active operations against the insurgents, the latter were in possession of Cavite Province and the immediately surrounding territory, and the insurrection had spread to all the central provinces of Luzón, where, however, the rebel

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forces were widely scattered and deficient in organization and equipment, only a few having firearms of any description. Nevertheless, under Llanera, they were able to gather as many as 5,000 men to raid along the railroad and the towns about Manila, plundering and burning. A small column was kept moving against them, but although it usually scattered the bands it attacked, they came together again to resume their marauding expeditions.

On November 1, 1896, General Blanco decided to assume the offensive in Cavite Province. He collected considerable quantities of supplies at Dalahican, a village on the peninsula of Cavite, where he had established his camp, and at Calamba.

He formed the forces concentrated at these points into three columns. The first one, under command of General Rios, marched from Cavite on Noveleta; the second, transported by sea to Binacayan, was to take possession of that village. and the third, that of Calamba, was composed of 1,500 men under the command of General Aguirre, commanding in the provinces of Laguna and Batangas. The duty of the latter was to march on Siláng by Talisay, and to join there a column then formed at Bañadero. These operations began on the 9th. They were not successful. The command which bad moved on Binacayan was forced back with heavy losses, and the column directed upon Noveleta failed to take possession of the trenches covering the approaches of the town, and also lost heavily. The heaviest losses in these engagements were the Seventy-third, a native regiment. The two columns had to fall back on Cavite. Talisay was taken on the 12th, but the, check which he had suffered near Cavite decided General Blanco to suspend the movement, and General Aguirre was ordered to return to Calamba, from which place he proceeded to Santa Cruz to suppress an uprising which had just taken place. Laguna Province was pacified in a few days, and on December 1 the command was again concentrated at Calamba and Santo Domingo, where a camp for 4,000 men was
prepared; General Rios’s brigade was reorganized in Cavite on December 1 and was also ready to take the offensive.

Weeks had passed, and the insurrection held its own. Blanco was the subject of bitter attack by the clerical party for his previous protection of Rizal, for his alleged connection with Masonry, and for his too great leniency in punishing the rebels. The Spanish press was filled with complaints of his inactivity, and finally an order was issued for his relief by General Polavieja, then on his way to the islands. Some days before the order was issued this telegram was published in the Madrid press. The immediate result suggests the influence of the friars in the conduct of Philippine secular affairs at Madrid.

Hongkong, October 31.

Dominicos, Madrid:

Situation growing more serious. Rebellion spreading. Apathy of Blanco inexplicable. In order to avert danger immediate appointment of a commander necessary. We agree in this.

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General Polavieja assumed the supreme command on December 13, 1896. The force at his disposal for operations against the insurgents must have been nearly 13,000 Spanish soldiers and probably three native regiments. It is probable that the remainder of the native regiments were retained in their usual garrisons to prevent outbreaks at new points. The new governor-general proceeded to carry out the plans of his predecessor. He intended to strongly occupy the lines which shut off the center of the insurrection in the province of Cavite in order to finish with the scattered centers in the neighboring provinces. After that he intended to employ the majority of his command in Cavite Province to finally trample out the insurrection there.

In consequence he changed the assignment of troops in Laguna, Batangas, and Tayabas provinces and formed a division under the command of General Lachambre composed of two brigades in Laguna Province and one in Batangas Province, while Cavite was held by an independent brigade and another occupied Manila and covered the line of the Pásig. Numerous light columns rid the provinces of central Luzón of the scattered groups of insurgents which occupied them. The rebels were held in about Cavite in spite of their repeated attacks upon the lines which confined them. Attacks on Santo Domingo and Las Piñas and a daring offensive movement toward the line of the Pásig followed by a hasty retreat on Pamplona were the principal manifestations of the activity of the enemy. General Polavieja laid a heavy hand upon the men charged with aiding and abetting the insurrection. A permanent court-martial sat in Manila charged with their trial. A number were shot, and by the end of December about 1,000 men, many of them rich and influential, had been tried and deported to various penal settlements and their property seized. On December 30 José Rizal was shot in Manila for conspiracy against the State.

As reinforcements continued to arrive, the month of January, 1897, was one of great activity, and constant combats took place in the center of Luzón, the most important of which was an attack upon the insurgent leader Llanera in Bulacán, who was forced to take refuge in Nueva Écija, while the majority of his followers availed themselves of an amnesty proclamation and surrendered. By the end of the month Bataan, Zambales, and Batangas provinces were reported free of insurgents. The time was fast approaching when it would be possible to move upon Cavite Province.

Spain, by February 1, 1847, had succeeded in transporting to the Philippines 15 battalions of infantry, 4 battalions of marine infantry, the men necessary to increase the companies in each battalion of infantry from 6 to 8, one battery of artillery, 9 cm. guns, and one squadron of cavalry. In all, some 25,000 officers and men had been sent to the Archipelago since the beginning of the insurrection, but the resources of the Peninsula were being severely tried by the war in Cuba, and the troops sent to the Philippines were young conscripts -- boys of 18 or 19 in most cases. Spain. exhausted by two rebellions, was drawing upon her last reserves.

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Nearly all of the reinforcements received from Spain, the Seventy-fourth Regiment and battalions of the Sixty-eighth, Seventieth, and Seventy-third native regiments, a small force of cavalry, three batteries and some 2,000 native volunteers, raised in provinces remote from the centers of insurgent activity, were available for an attack upon the insurgent positions. The period of preparation had passed and the governor-general prepared to engage in offensive operations.

The staff had been informed of the dispositions of the enemy by spies and frequent reconnoissances. The three principal centers were known to be Siláng., Nov[e]leta, and Imus. General Polavieja resolved to finish first with Silang. At the same time he had to hold the insurgents at the other points by means of vigorous demonstrations.
General Polavieja, captain-general, and as governor-general in supreme command, organized the following commands, which on February 7 were stationed as follows:

Division of La Laguna, Batangas and Tayabas, Major-General Lachambre. Under his immediate command were 16 guns, 200 cavalry, and organizations of volunteers and the civil guard, which gave him a force of under his personal command of 1,363 men. His three brigades were as follows:

First brigade. -- Brigadier-General Cornel; 4,001 men; headquarters at Calamba.

Second brigade. -- Brigadier-General Marina Vega; 3,913 men; headquarters at Biñang,

Third brigade. -- Brigadier-General Jaramillo; 1,645 men and 2 guns; headquarters at Taal, Batangas Province. It had also detachments along the line Lian-Taal, in Batangas Province, which amounted to 1,095 men.

The first and second brigades had detachments amounting to 1,563 men on the lines Santa Cruz-Calamba and Tanauan-Bañadero. These dispositions gave General Lachambre a total force of 13,580 men, of which 10,922 were available for the offensive. These commands were composed of infantry.

A fourth brigade under Brigadier-General Galbis, operating under the immediate command of the governor-general, with a strength of 100 cavalry, 5,869 infantry, and 14 guns, was extended along the northern bank of the Zapote River. The lakes of Bay and Taal were guarded by launches and small craft, while the gunboats of the squadron patrolled the seacoast.

Brigadier-General de los Rios held Cavite and Dalahican with a force of about 3,812 infantry and 100 cavalry, and Major-General Zappino held Manila and Morong provinces with a force of about 2,754 infantry, 216 heavy artillery, 200 cavalry, the Manila volunteers, and the civil guard of his provinces. His command included the city of Manila.

On February 14, General Lachambre, with Cornel’s and Marina Vega's brigades, moved on Siláng, which he took on February 19 and put in a condition of defense. On February 26, the division took Dasmari-

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ñas, which was defended by Aguinaldo in person. After beating off incessant attacks, the division moved on Salitrán, which it occupied on March 8. On February 16 Jaramillo took Bayuyuñgan and drove the insurgents from their intrenched positions in Batangas. On February 15, Galbis took Pamplona. On March 7, the first line of works about Imus was taken, but the resistance met was of such a nature that it was not considered advisable to attack the main position without reinforcements, and the troops which had occupied them were withdrawn.

On March 10, 1897, the division marched for the Zapote River and effected contact with the Fourth Brigade, then commanded by General Barraquer. On March 24 the division moved on Imus from Salitrán with a force of about 12,000 combatants, obtained by adding the Fourth Brigade and detachments to the First and Second brigades. By evening the first line of works about Imus had been taken; the next day the town was occupied and garrisoned. On March 26 General Polavieja offered amnesty to all who would surrender their arms before April 11. The same day the insurgents abandoned Bacoor on the approach of the Spanish troops, and an attack was delivered on Binacayan which failed, and the brigade making it fell back on Bacoor. On March 30 the division was concentrated at Imus, which it left next day, directed upon Noveleta, which was taken, and the insurgents abandoned Binacayan and Cavite Viejo. On April 6 Lachambre moved on San Francisco de Malabon, which he took after an obstinate resistance by the insurgents under the command of Bonifacio, head of the Katipúnan. Santa Cruz and Rosario were occupied without resistance, and the natives flocked jn from every direction to take advantage of the amnesty offered by the governor-general. Organized resistance in Cavite Province had been broken. The campaign had lasted fifty-two days, 57 combats had taken place, and the division had lost 15 officers and 168 men killed, and 56 officers and 910 men wounded. Probably a larger number had died or been invalided from disease.

It is impossible to say what the insurgent casualties were; the Spanish reports give their dead as about 3,450, which was probably as exaggerated as such estimates usually are. Reports of killed and wounded drawn up by the force which has suffered losses in action are accurate, as the men are known and must be accounted for on rolls of some form. No one in the victorious army has any personal interest in the dead of the enemy. The estimates of their number are influenced by the natural tendency to exaggerate the effect of fire directed by the officer making the report, even if it is not considered expedient to exaggerate the estimate for its effect upon the people of the country of the enemy when published. Even when count is made of the enemy's dead it is usually done in a perfunctory manner. There are other and more important things to be attended to after an action, and the totals are obtained by adding the reports and estimates of many men, who frequently report the same dead which have been reported upon by others. In these actions the insurgents evidently fought gallantly and lost heavily. The loss which, with a most imperfect armament, they had inflicted upon the Spaniards shows that they fought well. Nearly 12

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per cent of casualties in the attacking force, during operations lasting less than two months, shows a capable resistance on the part of the defense. They fought well; almost as well as the people of Achin, a Malay tribe which for thirty years has, from their hills and intrenchments, defied a Dutch force almost as large as that which the Spaniards employed against Cavite Province.

On April 25 General Polavieja, who had applied to be relieved from his command on account of illness, was succeeded by Gen. Primo de Rivera as governor-general of the Philippines. At the time of this change in the supreme command the insurrection had been almost extinguished in the provinces north of Manila, as, with the exception of a few hundred insurgents who had taken refuge in the mountains, all armed resistance had disappeared. In Batangas and Cavite provinces the eastern part had been pacified, but in the mountainous western part the insurgents still held the towns in the foothills of the Sierra de Tagaytay and the towns of Ternate and Naic, near the seacoast, and prevented the inhabitants of the neighboring towns from appearing to take advantage of the amnesty, although elsewhere in Cavite, on April 13 alone, 24,000 had presented themselves for that purpose.

Among the insurgent leaders the pressure of common adversity was not sufficient to destroy old rivalries. At the end of April they broke out into sudden flame and the band of Bonifacio fired upon the band of Aguinaldo. Bonifacio was taken and stripped of his rifles, his wife narrowly escaped rape by one of his rival's leaders, and after trial he was sentenced to death for conspiracy against the life of the president. On May 8, 1897, Aguinaldo commuted the sentence to solitary imprisonment for life, but since that time no man has seen the supreme leader of the Katipúnan. Aguinaldo later stated that he had had him shot. His action upon the sentence must have been for the purpose of avoiding the alienation of the adherents of Bonifacio. He could say in public that he had spared his life, as proven by a written record (Exhibit 30), while some secret emissary, under private instructions, made away with his rival. While the leaders were thus struggling for the mastery of the Katipúnan the Spanish authorities were preparing to sweep their bands from the towns which thev still held.

Shortly after his arrival Gen. Primo de Rivera issued a proclamation of amnesty, to run until the King’s birthday, May 17, and proceeded to Cavite Province to take the field in person. On May 1 operations began by the three brigades of that province moving forward in concert, while the fourth brigade in Batangas was charged with preventing the beaten force from taking refuge on the precipitous slopes of the Suñgay and Tagaytay mountains. In two weeks the last intrenched insurgent positions were occupied with but small loss, and Cavite Province was declared conquered and pacified.

The governor-general drew up a plan by which troops were to be so stationed and such measures were to be taken as would prevent the recrudescence of the insurrection. This plan was never put into effective operation, probably because men could not be spared, and the

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troops, without having remained long enough in their stations to accomplish anything permanent in the way of tranquilizing their various districts, were withdrawn to Manila on May 18, leaving a single battalion under the orders of the governor. As the province was thus stripped of troops the members of the Katipúnan, seeing the time opportune, renewed their activities and formed plans to revive the insurrection.

Aguinaldo, conquered in Cavite Province, took refuge in the almost inaccessible mountains which divide it from Batangas, and gathered about him the insurgents who had refused to avail themselves of the amnesty granted by the governor-general. As he had rid himself of his ablest rival, his authority seems to have been everywhere recognized by the insurgents, who saw that in his hands were now the formidable powers of the Katipúnan.

In the districts bordering on Cavite and Manila provinces, the insurrection, in place of dying out, revived. In Bulacán many insurgents appeared in arms and frequent encounters took place between them and the Spanish forces, which were kept moving incessantly. On May 30 Malvar took possession of Talisay, on Lake Taal, and had to be driven out from the intrenchments which he had built.

On June 10, 1897, Aguinaldo, with some 500 men, crossed the Pásig River almost within sight and hearing of Manila, proceeded to Biac-na-bató, some 60 miles from the capital in the foothills of the mountains of Bulacán, where he was joined by other bands. On June 14 a Spanish column had to withdraw with heavy loss from the northern part of Manila Province.

From his mountain fastnesses, Emilio Aguinaldo, now installed as president of the revolutionary government, with the additional title of generalissimo of the army of liberation, proceeded to perform various acts of supreme authority, and appointed as vice-president Mariano Trias. who remained in Batangas and Cavite provinces at the head of a small force.

When Aguinaldo reached Biac-na-bató, resistance had not ceased but its character had changed. Guerrilla warfare had been adopted by the insurgents, and the Spanish commands were forced to follow an enemy who was never dangerous to large bodies, but who always was to small ones -- an enemy who, wearing no uniform, upon the approach of a large body, became peaceful laborers in the fields along the road, ready to pick up their rifles or bolos and use them against a small party or a straggler. The leaders had not been killed or captured, and, although the result of the campaign in Cavite had been to sweep the organized insurgents from that province, yet, in spite of their heavy losses, enough were left to act as centers for the guerilla warfare which continued to extend from that province as from a single point of infection. The Spaniards had cut wide and deep, but they had not cut wide and deep enough.

Men who adopt the methods of guerrilla war thereby abandon the restrictions which international law has placed upon indulgence in

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the more base and cruel passions to which war gives rise, and have decided to cross the line of delimitation, which the public sense of civilized nations has drawn between the belligerent and the noncombatant; or else the men who adopt these methods have never heard of international law, and are guided by no sense except that of apparent immediate expediency. And yet guerrilla warfare is not a warfare of despair. Its cruelty is a calculated cruelty, and its adoption, except by savages, is a conscious and willful return to savag[e]ry. It or submission was the only choice left to Aguinaldo, and he did not choose it without some hope, for Spain had sent her last reinforcements. General Polavieja at the close of his campaign in Cavite had asked for 20 battalions to garrison the places which he had captured and to complete the pacification of the disaffected provinces. Spain had no more reinforcements for the Far East, and his request had been refused. Upon his arrival, Gen. Primo de Rivera had informed the Spanish authorities that he would need no reinforcements and had disbanded the Spanish volunteers. Aguinaldo must have realized that, although he had lost heavily in men and arms, yet the Spaniards, too, had lost, and that unless the country was won over to them their loss of men could not be replaced, while his could. He, however, could replace his loss in firearms and ammunition only by capture from the Spaniards, while they could draw upon Spain.

Failure to adopt the methods of guerilla warfare is almost always due to a desire to avoid the suffering which it inevitably causes among noncombatants. In Aguinaldo's theory of war there were no noncombatants. Although there could have been no reasonable expectation that the prolongation of the conflict would secure the recognition of the independence of the Malay States these men hoped to found, yet by adopting it there was a reasonable expectation of obtaining such measure of recognition as, in fact, they did obtain. Whatever they may have fought for at first, the leaders were fighting now for their own safety. From their point of view their policy was a wise one. The Spanish force in the Philippines could not be increased until the chances of the campaign in Cuba permitted the withdrawal of troops from that island. Until troops could be withdrawn from there it would be impossible to compensate for the diminution of the effective strength of the army in the Archipelago caused by [ca]sualties and disease, which Gen. Primo de Rivera said amounted to nearly 40 per cent a year, a drain which would be inevitably increased by the necessities of guerrilla warfare, forcing the divisions of the command into smaller and ever smaller detachments, difficult to supply, and with diminution in size exposed to increasing danger of attack by a hostile population. And then Aguinaldo probably reckoned upon an increase in his force from the acts of retaliation which accompany guerrilla warfare, and, which, when permitted by subordinate commanders, are so ill advised, for every village which is burnt and whose people are allowed to remain unfed sends its men to join the guerrilla bands. But Gen. Primo de Rivera had commanded before in the Philippines, where he was personally popular, and knew the country well. He saw the

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expediency of treating with humanity the population not openly engaged in hostilities, and by degrees won it over to himself and the Spanish cause, enabling him to fight Filipinos with Filipinos.

He himself said (46) that it was not sufficient for an army to triumph over guerrilla bands; to conquer the support of the country itself is necessary. Unless this is obtained, even when the country is occupied by soldiers, the war continues and grows. It is not sufficient to kill and to destroy; a desert is not necessarily at peace. A people who have risen in arms submit only of their own will, and only when the majority has been induced to believe that their property and their lives are safer in the hands of the leaders of the conquering army than in the hands of the leaders who have called them to the field.

In the month of July, 1897, no actions of importance were fought. Miguel Malvar exercised command over the Batangas insurgents, while Llanera was the principal chief in Central Luzón. In August Spanish troops had to disperse insurgents in Cavite Province, showing that the fires of insurrection were still smoldering there. Aguinaldo and Llanera made repeated attacks upon the town of San Rafael, Bulacán, but were repulsed, while in Batangas the insurgents had to be driven from an intrenched position near Lake Taal. In Laguna bands of insurgents armed with Remington and Mauser rifles went about attacking small towns and isolated "haciendas," but were usually overtaken and dispersed. On September 4 some 5,000 insurgents attacked Aliaga, Nueva Écija, and the small garrison there succeeded in holding its position only owing to the exhaustion of the attacking force. There were engagements in Pampanga, Tayabas, Laguna, and Batangas provinces, and a serious plot was discovered in Manila. By October the zone of guerrilla activity had spread to Pangasinán, Tarlac, Nueva Écija, and as far as Principe Province.

By this time the necessity of additional troops to take the place of those unfit for service was apparent. As the governor-general was not able to obtain troops from Spain, he was compelled to again resort to native volunteers, who, indeed, he said were to be preferred to the raw recruits which had been sent from the Peninsula. These by a decree of October 16, 1897, were called for from the provinces of Luzón, the Visayas, and the Christian parts of Mindanao. The decree called for two classes of volunteers --local and mobilized. The local volunteers were to be employed in the defense of their own towns and for patrol service. When in service they were to receive the same pay and allowances as native troops. The mobilized volunteers were to be armed, equipped, and fed by the Government, and were to act in combination with the regular troops. They were to receive slightly greater pay and allowances than the native troops, and those who remained in the ranks for more than six months were to be entitled to certain privileges, including exemption of themselves and their first-born sons from military service, exemption from the payment of taxes in kind, and from payment for “cédulas" or certificates of identity. Land bounties were provided for both classes of volunteers, and medals to commemorate their serv-

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ice. The call for volunteers wa[s] everywhere responded to with enthusiasm. Gen. Primo de Rivera says that he used all possible precautions to see that these volunteers were volunteers in fact, for only then could he feel secure of their fidelity. When 22,000 men or both classes had been enrolled enlistment was stopped. According to the governor-general there were only 5 desertions from this force prior to his departure from the islands, when he left 4,400 men of the mobilized militia. [45] Thus by degrees the devotion of the people drifted away from the insurgent leaders, who were forced to adopt measures of spoliation to live, and in December Gen. Primo de Rivera assembled a force of 8,000 Spanish soldiers, with which he invested the insurgent stronghold of Biac-na-bató, where were assembled Aguinaldo and many of his leaders.

In order to obtain this force the governor-general replaced the Spanish troops with volunteers in the positions from which the former had been withdrawn. The archbishop of Manila cooperated in the investment by placing at the disposal of Gen. Primo ,de Rivera between 20,000 and 30,000 men to carry supplies to the besieging army. These men were adherents of the church and were led to offer their
services through the exercise of the influence of the archbishop upon the parish priests. In fact, the rapidity with which volunteers were obtained was probably largely due to the influence of the parish priest, and as these volunteers were of great value to Spain in crushing out the embers of the insurrection it is evident that the friars had given another reason for their hatred by the class of natives represented by Aguinaldo. It must have been evident to them that they still stood between them and their control of the masses of the people. Their attack upon the Spanish clergy the following year was largely inspired by the desire to succeed to their influence upon these masses, an influence which the followers of Aguinaldo desired to exert and to exert untrammeled and alone.

2005-10-12T13:08:00.000-04:00

Ileto, Reynaldo C. Excerpts from The Diorama Experience: A Visual History of the Philippines. Makati City: Ayala Foundation, 2004. 84-93.

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Katipunan Initiation Rites
Manila, 1892

The arrest and exile of Jose Rizal convinced many Filipinos of the need for more radical measures to attain equality with, if not independence from, Spain. Andres Bonifacio, an admirer of Rizal and a member of La Liga Filipina (the Philippine League), proceeded to organize a secret society named Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (The Highest and Most Venerable Association of the Sons and Daughters of the Nation). The Katipunan, as the KKK was commonly referred to, was a small confraternity, numbering only three hundred from 1892 to 1895. It drew its inspiration from European Freemasonry as well as from confraternities or sodalities approved by the Catholic Church.

Bonifacio was a native of Tondo, a warehouseman, apart-time actor in vernacular dramas or komedya. Although proficient enough in reading Spanish, he wrote and spoke Tagalog almost exclusively. In his writings, he spoke of history and revolution in terms that the common people could understand. This is evident in his manifesto, Ang Dapat Mabatid ng Mga Tagalog (What the Tagalogs Should Know).

Bonifacio pictured the pre-colonial past as one of great abundance and prosperity. Everyone -- men and women, young and old -- Could read and write in their own language. Good relations were maintained with Japan and other neighboring lands. But the Spaniards came and seduced the natives into becoming their allies.

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The relationship with Spain was sealed by means of a pact which, Bonifacio wrote, "consisted of taking blood from each other's veins, mixing and drinking it as a sign of genuine and wholehearted sincerity in pledging not to be traitorous to their agreement. This was called the 'Blood Compact' of King Sikatuna and Legazpi, the representative of the King of Spain." This pact marked the beginning of the "fall" from an age of pre-Spanish wholeness into a dark age of oppression.

Bonifacio spoke of the people's duty to redeem the country in order to bring forth a condition called kalayaan. While routinely translated as "independence," the meaning of kalayaan runs deeper: it stems from the word layaw, meaning childhood bliss, bodily pleasure, and the satisfaction of necessities. The revolutionists coined the term kalayaan to define independence not just in terms of political autonomy from Spain but also as a general condition of well-being, abundance, and happiness -- a return of the golden age.

This proved to bean attractive appeal to the working classes of Manila and its environs. After Bonifacio's manifesto and similar writings appeared in the newspaper Kalayaan in mid-1896, the Katipunan's membership rose sharply to 30,000, and by early 1897 this had grown to hundreds of thousands.

The Katipunan's ideology was brought home to each member through the society's initiation ritual, an adaptation of the Catholic Easter Vigil ceremony enhanced by Masonic symbols. In a dark room with only a single point of illumination (patterned after the Easter candle), the neophyte was made to answer a series of questions, like those asked in baptismal ceremonies. However, instead of repudiating the devil in order to be reborn in the Catholic Church, the new Katipunero had to repudiate the dark age of friar domination in order to be reborn in a new community of the children of the Motherland (Inang Bayan).

The final step of the ritual was the signing of membership papers with the Katipunero's own blood. This signified not just his or her willingness to shed blood, or even to die, in freeing the Motherland but also the repudiation of the original blood compact between Sikatuna and Legazpi. The new blood compact would unite the sons and daughters of the Motherland who would call each other kadugo, "of the same blood."

While effective in ensuring commitment to the cause owing to its underlying themes of death and rebirth, the Katipunan initiation rite was too cumbersome and time-consuming as mass mobilization went fully underway in 1897. It was soon replaced by a simple oath-taking ceremony.

Aguinaldo abandoned the secret society mode of organization altogether when he formed a revolutionary government. Nevertheless, the Katipunan form of organization with its associated rituals survived in many areas under little-known leaders, sometimes assuming the characteristics of religio-political sects. And during the difficult guerrilla war with the United States, Aguinaldo himself would attempt to revive the Katipunan in order to keep the spirit of resistance alive among the lower classes.

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The Revolution Against Spain Begins
Manila, 1896

The Manila Katipunan was composed of workers, servants, petty clerks and traders, militiamen, and even seamen in cargo ships who spread the society's message to other parts of the archipelago. Some Filipino workers returning from abroad joined as well.

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Candido Iban and Francisco del Castillo, who worked as seamen and divers in Australia, were lucky enough to win in the Australian lottery and brought their winnings back to Manila. Joining the Katipunan in 1895, they donated four hundred pesos of their prize of one thousand pesos for the purchase of a printing press, which was used to print the newspaper Kalayaan, They then returned to Capiz to organize the Katipunan among their province mates.

Most wealthy and prominent Filipinos stayed away from the Katipunan. They saw it as a movement of the lower-middle class and gentes ordinarias (commoners) that lacked the armaments and skills to overcome Spanish state power. Bonifacio, however, managed to implicate the "better classes" in various ways in order to secure their financial and professional help. Even after Rizal refused to join, for example, his name and portrait were incorporated in Katipunan ceremonies.

After the secret society was exposed on August 19, 1896, Manila and other major towns became the scene of a massive manhunt in which about five hundred prominent Filipinos were arrested and tried for conspiracy and sedition before a special court. Spain's overreaction to the Katipunan's discovery lost her the allegiance of many among the indio and mestizo elite and their families who were unjustly persecuted.

The Katipunan's numerical strength lay in the suburbs of San Francisco Neri (today's Mandaluyong), San Juan de los Montes, and the barrios beyond, where the predominantly farming population had been recruited into the society. In one such stronghold, Balintawak, Bonifacio secretly gathered his men for the inevitable confrontation with the Spanish Army.

One of Bonifacio's close associates at Balintawak was an old remontado (rebel) named Laong, who wore a salacot (gourd) hat ornamented with silver, with a knob of the same metal. The missionaries labeled remontados those indios who had abandoned the towns and the Christian faith to live outside the control of Spain. Laong is said to have "attracted, catechized and initiated out-of-hand" many peasants in the fields surrounding Balintawak. He was one of those privileged to carry a revolver, of which the Katipunan had precious few. Laong led a group of remontados and peasant fanners in an attack on the Chinese and their stores in Caloocan and other places in the vicinity.

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Propertied Filipinos, including most ilustrados, would certainly have frowned upon such actions perpetrated by the "rabble," as Bonifacio's motley followers were sometimes called.

At Balintawak, the Katipunan code, which had been deciphered by the Spanish authorities, was changed. From there, the Katipuneros moved to Barrio Kangkong and eventually to Barrio Pugadlawin. At Pugadlawin, Bonifacio asked his men whether they were prepared to fight to the end. They all responded in the affirmative. Bonifacio then urged everyone to tear up his or her tax certificate (the infamous cedula personal), a symbolic gesture signifying the end of servitude to Spain. They did so amidst cries of "Long live the Philippines! Long live the Katipunan!" The gatherings at Balintawak and Pugadlawin were also occasions for communal meals, which brought the "children of the Motherland" together prior to battle.

As the Pugadlawin scene clearly shows, the Katipuneros were armed mostly with bolos and knives. Despite the defection of a few native militiamen with their arms, the Katipunan was no match for the Spanish forces. After a major defeat in Pinaglabanan, Bonifacio retreated to the hills of Morong province (now Rizal). Montalban was of special significance to him because it was in the cave of Pamitinan, abode of the legendary King Bernardo Carpio, that he and his associates had solemnly declared the independence of the country in April 1895. Perhaps it was the example of the remontado Laong that inspired Bonifacio to admit that in the case the Katipunan failed, he would remain an outlaw and never return to the Spanish fold.

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The Execution of Jose Rizal
Manila, 1896

Jose Rizal had been exiled to Dapitan in Mindanao because of suspicions that he was a revolutionary. But when he applied to serve as a volunteer physician in Cuba, the application was approved. His plan was to sail for Spain and go from there to Cuba. Before he could reach Spain, however, orders reached the ship's captain that Rizal was to be arrested and sent back to the Philippines.

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When Rizal was thrown into prison in November 1896, one of the first things he did was to design and send to his family a little sketch of "The Agony in the Garden," beneath which he wrote, "This is but the first Station." With him in his cell were a Bible and a copy of Tomas a Kempis's On the Imitation of Christ. By sending his family the Biblically-inspired sketch and note which would later come to the attention of more and more people together with his poem Mi Ultimo Adios, Rizal was obviously patterning his final days upon the familiar story of Christ's passion and death.

The publicized trial was a farce, but it fitted the scenario perfectly. The prosecutor called Rizal "the soul of this rebellion" whose countrymen render him "liege homage and look up to him as a superior being whose sovereign commands are obeyed without question." The Office of the Governor General submitted a document to the court that described Rizal as "the great agitator of the Philippines who is not only personally convinced that he is called to be the chosen vessel of a kind of redemption of his race, but who is considered by the masses of the native population to be a superhuman being."

Faced with such charges, Rizal could only plead that he had nothing to do with political affairs from July 1892 to June of that year and that he was opposed to the armed conspiracy. But the Judge Advocate General refused to allow publication of Rizal's manifesto condemning the uprising because, in effect it "said in substance: 'Let us subject ourselves now, for later I shall lead to the Promised Land.'" At the trial's end, news of Rizal's impending execution quickly "spread everywhere, producing a deep impression."

Rizal refused to be brought to the execution site in a military wagon, as was customary. He preferred to walk instead. Whether he intended it or not, everything about

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his final hour was public, subject to rumor and interpretation. Entering the square formed by a company of soldiers who were his executioners, Rizal maintained an "amazing serenity," taking firm steps as if on a stroll. A Spanish doctor, wondering at his calmness, took his pulse and found it perfectly normal.

Despite his objections, Rizal had his back to the firing squad, but he was prepared with his special stance and suddenly twisted around in death, to fall face upwards. And sure enough, after uttering loud and clear his last words, "Consummatum est!" which was followed by a barrage of musket fire, Rizal lay dead facing the breaking dawn.

Rizal's mode of death, publicized in the Spanish and vernacular newspapers and repeated by word of mouth, was an event that could be comprehended at least by all Christian Filipinos. It enabled a greater number of people, regardless of regional, linguistic, and class differences, to discover a common identity by empathizing with Rizal and even following his example. It sparked the rapid growth of the Katipunan and religio-political sects in Luzon and the Visayas during the early months of 1897. A common feature of these diverse movements was their rallying cry, "Viva Rizal!"

The 1898 Republican government further encouraged the interpretation of Rizal as a national martyr. Toward the end of 1898 and in January 1899, the revolutionary newspapers La Independencia and El Heraldo de la Revolucion carried descriptions of the commemoration of Rizal's death in various towns.

Rizal himself had said, "the day the Spanish inflict martyrdom... farewell, pro-friar government, and perhaps farewell, Spanish government."

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Court Martial of Andres Bonifacio
Cavite, 1897

The Katipunan uprising began in Manila and was fairly quickly suppressed, but in the surrounding provinces, events progressed in different ways, depending on the specific characteristics of each locale. The Katipunan leaders in Cavite tended to come from merchant and landowning families that had come to dominate municipal politics. Most had a Spanish education and the mayors (gobernadorcillos), in particular, could boast of some experience in warfare through leading their local police forces against bandit gangs. They were better situated to win battles against Spanish forces and liberate some towns, while Bonifacio was suffering one setback after another in the vicinity of Manila.

As Santiago Alvarez of San Francisco de Malabon writes of the experience of independence during the latter days of September 1896: "The people were truly happy, free to enjoy life in all sorts of ways. Food was plentiful; all things were cheap; there were no perversities, no robberies, no thefts, no pickpockets. Everyone had love for his fellow men, and in every place the Katipunan's teaching of brotherly love held sway." Rumors of the victories of Emilio Aguinaldo, a former mayor of Kawit, soon spread to other locales. A foreign journalist described people from Manila, Pasay, and Morong towns, "thousands of them, men and women, young and old, carrying their possessions, hurrying to place themselves under the Little Republic of Cavite." Early in December, Bonifacio, whose wife Gregoria de Jesus had relatives in Cavite, accepted an invitation to transfer his operations there.

Upon arriving with his wife, his brothers, and twenty men, Bonifacio found himself caught in the crossfire between two rival Katipunan factions, the Magdalo and the Magdiwang, and became

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identified with the latter. The Tejeros convention, held on March 22, 1897, was an attempt to solve these internal problems. A revolutionary government replaced the Katipunan society, and Aguinaldo, the head of the Magdalo, (in fact Magdalo, or Magdalene, was his nom de guerre) was elected president. The new government took over the house that served as the Magdiwang headquarters and placed a trooper at Bonifacio's door to curtail the Supremo's activities.

Andres Bonifacio's defeat at the Tejeros election was facilitated by comments of the opposition that he lacked education, could not handle Spanish, and was not truly a republican because people in the streets hailed him as "Hari ng Katagalugan" (King of the Tagalogs), not to mention his use of the controversial title "Supremo." Some went to the extent of calling him a leader of bandits called "Katipungoles" and derided his alleged claim that the mythical Bernardo Carpio would come down from Mount Tapusi to help his struggling forces.

All of these criticisms actually point to Bonifacio's ability to render the struggle meaningful to the common people and the disdain with which many members of the "better classes" regarded such behavior. One criticism seems valid though: Bonifacio was a poor military strategist compared to the likes of Aguinaldo.

Perhaps owing to the unfair and insulting manner in which the Magdalo leaders treated him, Bonifacio refused to accept the results of the Tejeros election. He gathered his loyal followers and left with his wife and two brothers, intending to return to his hideouts in Morong. Aguinaldo, interpreting this as insubordination and a cause of disunity in the revolutionary camp, ordered the arrest of the Bonifacio brothers. In the skirmish that ensued, one of Bonifacio's brothers, Ciriaco, was killed and the other brother, Procopio, wounded. Andres was brought back to Naic, a prisoner of the revolutionary government. He and Procopio were court-martialed, found guilty of sedition, and sentenced to death.

The final decision was left to Aguinaldo, and there is a document proving that Aguinaldo commuted the penalty to indefinite exile. But perhaps his fellow commanders overruled him. Andres and Procopio Bonifacio were executed by a platoon of soldiers under Major Lazaro Macapagal's command in Mount Buntis, Maragondon, on May 10, 1897. The question of ultimate responsibility for this act, which demoralized a great number of Katipuneros, still remains unresolved.

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Richardson, Jim. "Ileto's Indeterminacies." 2005.

Pasyon and Revolution and other pieces by Ileto, it is not entirely flippant to suggest, might be seen as akin to the pasyon itself, as texts capable of generating multiple, even contradictory, meanings. These diverse meanings stem not just from the diverse interpretations of individual readers, but also from Ileto’s own inconsistency.

Perceptions or empirical realities?

Ileto, it has been said (BfB, 287), is interested principally in perceptions rather than behavior or attitudes, and indeed this statement can be supported by a host of quotes. The tenets of traditional empiricist historiography, Ileto maintains, - cause-and-effect, objective truth, common sense, the author-centric fixation of meanings etc. - are outmoded, and need to be rejected in favor of structuralist and phenomenological approaches that focus on collective discourses, mentalities and perceptions.

On the other hand, Ileto by no means forswears addressing traditional concerns. When analyzing the popular movements of the period 1840-1910, he makes innumerable statements about the character, attitudes and behavior of individuals as well as collectivities. This, one might argue, smacks strongly of what he scorns in other passages as fuddy-duddy, old-style history. He indicates, for example, that his purpose in examining literature like the pasyon, awit and poems is largely instrumental; he is seeking to complement conventional sources and to shed fresh light on the trajectories and ideologies of "concrete struggles", not merely on how they were perceived (P&R, 14-5; CI, 95; 103).

Bonifacio's "real" character and intentions: chimerical and irrelevant or sufficiently knowable and relevant for the historian to offer a view?

This inconsistency is illustrated very clearly when Ileto discusses the KKK Supremo, Andres Bonifacio. He claims that, "like a ‘text’, Bonifacio cannot be pinned down to a particular meaning and truth. He could only operate within the prevailing social structure and mode of discourse of his time" (BTSS, 25). Ileto wishes to call attention not to “the historical content of Bonifacio's work but its form and language” (P&R, 103, emphasis added). “Bonifacio's psychological make-up”, he writes, “is never discussed in [my book] Pasyon and Revolution”..…Whether or not Bonifacio intended (his trip with other Katipuneros to Mount Tapusi in 1895 to evoke associations with the legendary giant Bernardo Carpio) "is irrelevant to the web of meanings in which his gestures were located" (CI, 96). "Whether Bonifacio was a Mason or a Catholic is irrelevant here…. " (P&R, 103)

On the other hand, Ileto by no means forswears imparting "facts" and judgments about Andres Bonifacio. "They called him an ignoramus, an outsider from Tondo, a poor military strategist, a Mason, a monarchist, a tulisan (bandit) even. But beneath these accusations, most of which are valid...." (P&R, 137, emphasis added).

Bonifacio's "real" character and intentions: closer to the ilustrado propagandistas or to the Tagalog millenarian tradition?

Having succumbed to the temptation to proffer "facts" and judgments, Ileto gives a portrayal that is not just ambivalent - as indeed might befit Bonifacio's character - but self-contradictory. It is tempting here to jest that Ileto gets hoisted by his own post-modernist petard. Due to an excess of theoretical purity, in other words, he is so reluctant to "privilege" one contending "truth" or "meaning" (as divined either by contemporary observers or by historians) over another that he accepts and endorses a variety of "truths" and "meanings", even when they appear mutually exclusive. But presumably this cannot be the case, because the post-modernist purist would always present contending views as the perceptions of others rather than adopting them as his own. The real source of contradiction, it appears, is the opposite of theoretical purity. Ileto cannot, in the end, entirely shake off the shackles of traditional historiography or abjure the view "from above".

(a) Close to the propagandistas

Ileto, contends Glenn May (IH, 143), "essentially eliminated the Propaganda Movement from the history of the Philippine Revolution, linking Bonifacio not to a reform program shaped by European liberal ideology but to a tradition of home-grown popular uprisings." Perhaps this overstates the case. Ileto criticizes those who he says have convinced "themselves of the essentially bourgeois ideology of the Katipunan as a whole" (BTSS, 26), but he does not deny that the ideology of some or all of the Katipunan's leaders might be termed "essentially bourgeois". The foundation of the Katipunan he likewise describes as having been "excessively" attributed to ilustrado influence, but he does not deny that influence altogether (P&R, 98). The middle class origins of the leadership in both city and countryside, he acknowledges, are "obvious" (BTSS, 26). Historians, he accepts, have been right to assume that Bonifacio's manifesto "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog" was "inspired by the writings of ilustrados like Rizal" (P&R, 103).

So, the Katipunan did have some ancestry in the Propaganda Movement and 1896 was in some degree the culmination of a nationalist tide that stemmed from heightened Westernization (P&R, 97). The primitive-to-modern construct adopted by previous historians, Ileto thinks, exaggerates these linkages and conceals the linkages with the folk millenarian tradition, but he does not totally reject the conclusions drawn from this construct, and even acknowledges the "usefulness" of the construct itself for certain purposes (CI, 100).

The pasyon language, Ileto writes, is outside the subject, in society, delimiting the individual construction of meaning for those immersed in its world. The "ilustrados, on the other hand, could stand apart from it and 'use' it" (CI, 96, emphasis added). The Katipunan supremo, Ileto suggests in some passages, belonged with the ilustrados in this regard. He and "other Filipino nationalists of some education", for example, are seen as finding in the Bernardo Carpio story "a popular perception of events on which to hinge their separatist ideas" (P&R, 126, emphasis added). Similarly, "Bonifacio was so adept at tapping popular feelings to serve his revolutionary ends that he was unavoidably incorporated into the folk view of events" (P&R, 137, emphasis added). Surely the reader must infer from these passages that Ileto has concluded Bonifacio's nationalist, revolutionary ideas and ends were somehow more "modern" than the ideas and ends of the Tagalog masses.

(b) Close to the Tagalog millenarian tradition

And yet, as Glenn May suggests (IH, 155), Ileto does situate Bonifacio firmly in the Tagalog millenarian tradition. By this I presume May means not merely that Bonifacio’s personality and appeals were so perceived by sections of the "pobres y ignorantes" (which is indisputable, and not in the least incompatible with the position that "Bonifacio was close to the propagandistas"), or that he consciously tailored his appeals to a pasyon-attuned audience (almost certainly he did), but that he actually shared in large measure the millenarians' world view.

That Ileto does take this latter view can again be supported by a number of quotes. “There was something about Bonifacio's mentality that a believer in enlightenment liberalism like Carlos Ronquillo found disturbing, and decried as a ‘dark underside’” (BTSS, 28, emphasis added). Bonifacio, like the millenarians but apparently unlike Aguinaldo, believed that spiritual preparation was as important as military preparation in gaining victories on the battlefield (P&R, 176). His downfall at the hands of the Caviteño elite can be traced to his pre-occupation with "sacred ideals" and moral transformation. He conceived of national unity as each citizen's rebirth in a society of liwanag (P&R, 135-7).

The pasyon idiom: politically neutral or radical?

No reliable evidence, Glenn May concludes (IH, 161-3), links Bonifacio to the pasyon and the Philippine millenarian tradition. Again, I presume the issue here is whether Bonifacio actually shared the millenarians' world-view. If so, I believe May’s verdict would still hold good even if all the “Bonifacio texts” of dubious provenance turned out to be genuine.

The pasyon, says Ileto, cannot be regarded as an "ideology", an "articulation of ideas", an "inspiration" or a "cause" (CI, 95-7). To argue otherwise is to confuse structure with content. Ileto might even object to May’s formulation “pasyon tradition" (IH, 155). Rather, says Ileto, the pasyon offered units of meaning; it was a language, an idiom, a modality of social discourse.

The pasyon story, Ileto initially observes, can be construed politically from diametrically opposed standpoints. On the one hand Christ may be seen as a subversive figure, a man “poor and lowly" who attracted his followers mainly from the common people, drew them away from their families and from subservience to their wealthy masters, gave them special powers and formed them into a brotherhood that proclaimed mankind's salvation. But alternatively the scriptures might be used to inculcate loyalty to Spain, Church and the status quo; to encourage resignation to worldly injustice and suffering by promising the poor, meek and humble their reward in the afterlife. Pasyon language might equally be employed to define either a conservative, orthodox religious fraternity or a radical heresy (P&R, 15).

As his discussion moves on to the popular movements themselves, however, Ileto all but forgets these crucial points and increasingly delineates the pasyon idiom as inherently radical, as properly belonging to the dissident tradition alone. When discussing the early 1900s, for example, Ileto says that for Macario Sakay and other leaders of the revived Katipunan "nothing was more infuriating than the abuse of the term kalayaan. The word was alienated from its original, full meaning by collaborators and plain politicians who sought to justify their behavior to a populace with fresh memories of the revolution….One can imagine the surprise and disbelief of the revolutionaries at such co-optation of their language by collaborators in the towns"(P&R, 219-20, emphasis added). Ileto might counter this point by saying he was representing Sakay's views rather than his own, but at the very least it is clear that he strongly empathizes with those views. In any event, if Sakay and his colleagues were so indignant about pacification rhetoric, why did they twice succumb to it? In 1901 they accepted positions in a Nacionalista Party founded on a platform of peace, order and independence "in opportune time…under the protectorate of the United States", and in 1906 they were persuaded to surrender after the ilustrado politician Dominador Gomez had promised them that the establishment of a Philippine Assembly would be "the gate of kalayaan". Partly, Ileto notes, the surrender showed regrettable naïveté. Nevertheless, he suggests, it also reflected the idea found in the dissident folk tradition that kalayaan could not be realized until Filipinos had proven themselves worthy of it (P&R, 240-2).

The pasyon idiom: the rightful property of the Tagalog masses or pretty much ubiquitous?

But the notion that moral upliftment was an essential prerequisite for liberty, of course, was not confined to the dissident tradition. It is a recurrent and prominent theme in the works of the propagandistas. The liberties he desired for the country, Rizal wrote in his manifesto condemning the revolution, "I made conditional on the education of the people, so that by means of learning and work they would have their own personality and make themselves worthy of (such liberties)".

The language and structures of the pasyon, it can be demonstrated, were employed by the elite before 1896 as well as subsequently. Ileto himself makes this point, but periodically fails to keep it in mind. "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog", he notes, is ordered in a Lost Eden/ Fall/ Redemption sequence - a structural feature of the pasyon. "Is this merely Bonifacio," he asks, "or have we not begun to discuss the masses?" (CI, 104). But the same "Lost Eden" theme, Ileto acknowledges elsewhere, can frequently be found in the writings of Rizal and other ilustrados (NLE, 133).

This brings us back, finally, to the distinction Ileto makes between those whose construction of meaning was delimited by pasyon language (the "masses") and those who could stand apart from it and “use” it (the elite) (CI, 96). How do we know where to draw the line between these two groups? How do we know whether an individual employing pasyon language and structures actually shares mass perceptions? We don't. Ileto, once again, seems ambivalent and inconsistent on this point himself, for in certain instances he suggests that members of the elite did not always "stand apart" from mass perceptions and beliefs. He contends that, "for Rizal", martyrdom by firing squad was "the culmination of his pasyon" (P&R, 312, emphasis added). Aguinaldo was not only "an effective orator in the traditional idiom of struggle", but to protect himself against misfortune reportedly added to his entourage an individual with potent special powers.

But in Ileto's view others who definitely did stand apart from Tagalog folk culture, like Governor General Harrison, could employ pasyon structures unwittingly, and evoke a passionate response from a Tagalog audience almost accidentally (OC, 100). This is because Harrison too came from a Catholic background, Ileto might counter. What then, about the lengthy passages on "liwanag" in the Tagalog translation of the Koran, it might be asked - elements of the pasyon idiom can be found wherever you look for them.

If Glenn May is right that Jose P. Santos "made the crucial linguistic choices" (IH, 161) when crafting a Tagalog version of "Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog", it therefore seems to me that those choices would have been accorded a deep significance and resonance by Ileto whatever they had been.

Indigenous categorization: valuable or let's not bother?

As May very aptly observes: "In Pasyon and Revolution, Ileto adopted a text-building strategy that might best be described as discursive blurring - by which I mean that he constructed his text in such a way as to blur important distinctions and link things that should not necessarily be linked" (IH, 146). The trouble with Ileto's one dimensional "from below" approach, to put it slightly differently, is that all the various movements he studies finish up cast in the same millenarian mould. Instead of suggesting criteria that might replace the orthodox, elite-defined constructs, it appears, the perception categories of folk Christianity reduce the political spectrum to a monochrome blotch.

At one point Ileto suggests he may offer alternatives to the elite-defined constructs: "'That religious/secular categories can be applied to 19th century Philippines is not self-evident and can be done only within critical limits. Or better still, why not derive categories from within the socio-cultural milieu itself?”(CI, 99). But once more he cannot make up his mind, because he also half-agrees with Foucault that any system of categorization amounts to an attempt to domesticate what should be exotic and unique. "For Foucault, the task is one of disordering, destructuring, unnaming - an extreme view, yet so relevant to our present situation" (BTSS, 27). This latter view must be the one upon which he finally settled, because the projected alternative categorization has not so far materialized.

Abbreviations

BfB Glenn Anthony May, The Battle for Batangas: a Philippine province at war (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991)

BTSS Reynaldo C. Ileto, "Bonifacio, the Text and the Social Scientist", Philippine Sociological Review, 32 (January-December 1984), pp.19-29.

CI Reynaldo C. Ileto, "Critical Issues in 'Understanding Philippine Revolutionary Mentality'", Philippine Studies, 30 (First Quarter, 1982), pp.92-119.

IH Glenn Anthony May, Inventing a Hero: the posthumous re-creation of Andres Bonifacio, (Madison: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin, 1996).

NLE Reynaldo C. Ileto, "Outlines of a Non-Linear Emplotment of Philippine History" in Lim Teck Ghee (ed.), Reflections on Development in Southeast Asia (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1988), pp.130-59.

OC Reynaldo C. Ileto, “Orators and the Crowd: Philippine Independence Politics, 1910-1914” in Peter W. Stanley (ed.), Reappraising an Empire: new perspectives on Philippine-American History (Cambridge, Mass.: Committee on American-East Asian Relations of the Department of History in collaboration with the Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1984), pp.85-113.

P&R Reynaldo Clemeña Ileto, Pasyon and Revolution: popular movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910 (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1979).

2005-10-05T15:36:00.000-04:00

Fast, Jonathan, and Richardson, Jim. "The Katipuneros: Revolutionary Leadership in City and Province." In Roots of Dependency: Political and Economic Revolution in 19th Century Philippines. Quezon City: Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1979. 67-74, 129-30.

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9

The Katipuneros: Revolutionary Leadership in City and Province

Rizal's view of the lowly character of the Katipunan was widely shared in ilustrado circles. In the opinion of Felipe Calderon, a plantation-owner and successful lawyer, the insurrection was “organized by the most ignorant element of the people.”¹ The first Filipino historian of the Katipunan, the propagandist Isabelo de los Reyes, stressed in a pamphlet published in 1900 that the revolutionary association was a “plebeian society,” whose members "belonged to the workmen and peasant classes" and among whose founders "there was not a single rich man, nor one of a learned profession."² Behind such observations lay either distaste or condescension. Later accounts, however, have often echoed this uncomplicated analysis of the Katipunan's composition more approvingly, presenting the insurrection as a salutary popular reaction against ilustrado gradualism and prevarication. The elaboration of this argument forms the central theme, for instance, of Teodoro Agoncillo's The Revolt of the Masses, which since its publication in 1956 has been generally accepted as the most authoritative study of the subject. The Katipunan, Agoncillo asserts at the outset, was a "distinctively plebeian society."³ Objectively, he writes, the "middle class" reformists had proven themselves "the bulwark of the Spanish reactionary party,” too concerned with their own position and consequently too cautious to make any real impact on the nature of colonial rule.⁴ Through their failure to provide effective leadership, their inability to understand the common people's aspirations and their snobbish aloofness they had won "the hatred of the masses" and direction of the nationalist cause had passed into other hands."⁵ The sentiments of the Katipuneros, Agoncillo agrees with Isabelo de los Reyes, were that "where there are learned men everything is brought to naught by discussions.” For this reason, they "did not want to admit the learned" into the association.⁶

Apart from their more militant and immediate commitment to separation from Spain, to what extent did the Katipuneros' ideas and aspirations differ from those of writers such as Rizal, Lopez-Jaena and del Pilar? Historiographical opinion on this question has undergone an evolution similar to that on the place of the Katipunan within Philippine society. Having observed that the association had been organized "from below,” many ilustrados felt that the revolutionaries had departed from the enlightenment liberalism of the propagandists. The Spanish accusation that "upper class

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Filipinos" were the true financiers and directors of the Katipunan was clearly unfounded, Felipe Calderon asserted, because the association was "socialistic."⁷ Florentino Torres, a prominent magistrate, testified that "the socialist character of the revolution of 1896… is a patent and positive fact."⁸ The ultimate goal of the Katipuneros, according to Isabelo de los Reyes, was the establishment of a "communistic republic."⁹ Such comments sowed the seed of historical orthodoxy. The officially approved chronicler of the American occupation, James LeRoy, saw in Katipunan propaganda "an element of resentment toward the wealthy" and expressed his agreement with the judgment of Calderon.¹⁰ The Filipino historian, Gregorio Zaide, in his monograph on the association, accepts without comment that the Katipunan's final objective was the "communistic republic" mentioned by de los Reyes.¹¹ But again it is Agoncillo's The Revolt of the Messes that develops the hypothesis at greatest length. The Katipunan, Agoncillo writes, was "fundamentally a mass idea based on utopian soclalism."¹² While the "middle classes" wanted to preserve their privileged position in Philippine life, the masses, symbolized by the Katipunan, wanted to overthrow the existing social order.¹³ Hostile to the "landowning class," Agoncillo asserts, the association aimed to abolish the basis of cacique power through the implementation of agrarian reform.¹⁴ Independence achieved and the grip of the "ruling class" destroyed, it would establish an economic democracy.¹⁶

Despite the weight of historical opinion behind them, the interpretations of Katipunan composition and purpose outlined above present a seriously distorted picture of the revolutionary association's character. Over-simplication and looseness of terminology have often compounded their error. One major source of confusion, pointed out by the historian Cesar Majul in a comment on the remarks of Florentino Torres, is that the mass character of the revolution per se has occasionally been taken as evidence of a "socialist" nature.¹⁶ Some observers have failed to appreciate, in other words, that although class and ideology are clearly related, they are nevertheless essentially distinct. To avoid repeating this mistake, therefore, and for the sake of greater clarity, the respective questions of composition and purpose will here be discussed individually.

The customary point of departure for proponents of the thesis that the insurrection was organized by "the most ignorant element" of the Filipino people has been the figure of Andres Bonifacio, popularly commemorated as the "Great Plebeian,” founder of the Katipunan and its President at the outbreak of the 1896 revolution. Agoncillo, for instance, despite his own evidence to the contrary, contends that Bonifacio was "almost illiterate" and "belonged to the lowest class."¹⁷ Even from the scanty information available on Bonifacio's life, it is certainly clear that the Katipunan Supremo was not of the "lowest class" of Philippine society.

The first of six children of Santiago Bonifacio, a tailor, and Catalina de Castro, a Spanish mestiza, he was born in the district of Tondo in 1863. His father had at one time served as the district's teniente mayor.¹⁸ The circumstances of the family are not recorded, but the parents were able to send Andres to private tutors in the locality and provide him with a sound elementary education.¹⁹ His studies were supplemented in the home, it is said, by a

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"learned and patriotic aunt."²⁰ However, his formal schooling was curtailed when he was orphaned at the age of fourteen and obliged to start work to help support his younger brothers and sisters. While still young he made and sold walking sticks and paper fans and, being a gifted calligraphist, designed advertising posters.²¹ Seeking more regular employment in his late teens, he joined Fleming & Co., a firm dealing in goods such as rattan and tar, afterwards transferring to another foreign commercial company, Fressel.& Co., where he remained until the outbreak of the revolution. Although traditionally presented as the decisive verification of Bonifacio's lowly proletarian credentials, the Supremo's occupational status in these two firms has apparently never been precisely determined, descriptions of his various positions ranging from "night watchman"²² and "warehouse-keeper"²³ through "clerk messenger"²⁴ to the distinctly less modest appellations of "agent"²⁵ and "broker".²⁶ Whatever the exact duties involved, however, employment in the capital's foreign houses offered good opportunities for advancement, and was much sought after. "The fathers of many who at this day figure as men of position and standing,” commented a British observer of Manileño society, “commenced their careers as messengers, warehousekeepers, clerks etc. of the foreign houses."²⁷

Circumstantial evidence that 8onifacio's fortunes were indeed on the rise is provided by his marriage in 1893 to Gregoria de Jesus, the daughter of a gobernadorcillo of the town of Caloocan, a few miles north of Manila. His bride's upbringing had been far from impoverished. Looking after family interests with her sister "to enable our two brothers to study in Manila", Gregoria recounted later in a memoir, "I had to go out in the country to supervise the planting and harvesting of our rice and to supervise our tenants and laborers and also to pay the wages of my father's workers on Sunday mornings."²⁶ It is also worth noting that although Gregoria's father hesitated before consenting to the marriage with Bonifacio, his initial reluctance was not based on any suggestion that his daughter's intended partner was beneath her station or that she would find it difficult to adjust to a less comfortable way of life. His objection, Gregoria recalled, was that Bonifacio was a freemason and therefore an enemy of the Church and likely to fall afoul of the authorities.²⁹ This points to another inconsistency in the view of the Katipunan leader as a simple plebeian. The majority of Filipino masons in the late nineteenth century were men of some substance and education, and masonry constituted the principal organizational focus for the domestic following of the expatriate ilustrado propagandists. When Rizal, himself a mason, returned to the Philippines in 1892 wishing to launch a new association for the "study and application of reforms" it was to the leading officers of Manila's lodges that he first turned for assistance.³⁰ The association resulting from this initiative was the Liga Filipina. According to Agoncillo, it "personified the middle class", to whom "it was inconceivable that the unlettered masses should be given the privileges of their respectable group.”³¹ In establishing the Liga, he asserts, the intellectual and wealthy gradualists "set up a sort of caste system from which the unlettered commoners were contemptuously excluded."³² Yet Bonifacio was one of Liga's founding members.

The foregoing discussion is not intended to infer that Bonifacio belonged

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to the same social stratum as men like Rizal. Educationally he was excluded from true ilustrado status by his unfinished schooling, and financially he probably was one of the least affluent of the original Liga members. But the relative modesty of Bonifacio's circumstances in this company should not disguise the fact that he occupied a position closer to the centre of the social pyramid than to its base, closer to the petty-bourgeoisie than the proletariat. His principal associates in the early Katipunan moved in much the same milieu. Among those who joined Bonifacio in founding the Katipunan in July 1892, for instance, was Teodoro Plata, then a court clerk in the Manila district of Binondo and later at the court of first instance in Mindoro. Plata was a first cousin of Gregoria de Jesus and subsequently married one of Bonifacio's sisters.³³ Together with Bonifacio and Plata in the first Katipunan "triangle" was Ladislao Diwa, a court clerk in the district of Quiapo, Manila. From his home province of Cavite, where his father was a master carpenter in charge of a workshop at the Spanish naval yard, Diwa had first come to Manila as a working student. After graduating from San Juan de Letran he enrolled in law at the University of Santo Tomas, where he first encountered Bonifacio, then clandestinely distributing propaganda literature to the students. The two became firm friends and for a while Diwa lived as a boarder in Bonifacio's house.³⁴

Elected president of the first supreme council of the Katipunan established late in 1892, was Deodato Arellano, brother-in-law of Marcelo H. del Pilar and himself an active figure in various groups that supported the expatriate writers and worked for the reformist cause at home. When the Liga Filipina was launched by Rizal, he was chosen council secretary. Arellano worked as a clerk in the arsenal of the Spanish artillery corps.³⁵ His successor as President of the Katipunan Supreme Council, elected in February 1893, was Roman Basa, who occupied a similar clerical position in the Spanish naval headquarters. Introduced to the association by Ladislao Diwa, a town-mate from San Roque in Cavite, Basa served as Katipunan president for two years, finally being replaced by Bonifacio himself.³⁶ During his incumbency a number of organization changes were made that sought to improve and systematize recruitment to the association, including the formation of district branches known as popular councils. Assigned to head the popular council of Santa Cruz, Manila, was Restituto Javier, son of a Tondo property owner and compadre and fellow-employee of Bonifacio.³⁷ Assigned to build Katipunan support in the Manila district of Trozo was a half-brother of Javier, Jose Turiano Santiago, who also held the position of secretary to the Katipunan Supreme Council. A graduate of Santo Tomas, Santiago made a living as an accountant and commercial agent.³⁸

Aside from Santiago and Ladislao Diwa, at least two other Supreme Council officers -- Pio Valenzuela and Emilio Jacinto -- had attended the Islands' only University. Valenzuela, whose parents "belonged to the local aristocracy" of Polo, Bulacan, was a fourth year medical student when he joined the Katipunan. Another compadre of Bonifacio, he served as fiscal and physician on the Council.³⁹ Jacinto, who had enrolled at Santo Tomas after graduating from San Juan de Letran, was first elected to the Supreme Council in 1895, soon after his nineteenth birthday. Despite his youth, he thereafter

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became the closest of all Bonifacio's associates and the association's leading publicist and theoretician. To comply with the Katipunan principle of using only the vernacular, it is interesting to note, Jacinto had first to make himself proficient in Tagalog. The son of a well-known Tondo merchant, he had grown up more accustomed to using a corrupt form of Spanish then current among those Manileños "who had some visible means of livelihood and those who pretended to be among the ilustrado,"⁴⁰

The antecedents, education and careers of men like Plata, Diwa, Arellano, Basa, Javier, Santiago. Valenzuela and Jacinto thus indicate that none of the most prominent Manila-based Katipuneros, any more than Bonifacio, could be classified as either “ignorant" or typically proletarian. On the contrary, the most striking link among those named is that they all occupied intermediate positions in Philippine society, more especially positions which brought them into direct contact, in a variety of contexts, with the institutions, policies and representatives of Spanish colonial rule. Those who had studied at the clerically-administered colleges and university felt, as Rizal had a decade earlier, that despite the prestige attached to attending such institutions the instruction they provided was anachronistic in both style and content, an affront to Filipino dignity and aspirations. Bonifacio and Javier, as employees of a foreign business firm, could witness at first hand the difficulties and frustration caused by the restrictive and complex legislation that surrounded overseas trade. The trend toward greater protectionism, they would be aware, not only endangered the chances of trade-based prosperity but also posed an immediate threat to the living standards of Filipinos in all walks of life by raising the prices of basic imported commodities. Plata and Diwa, court clerks, and Arellano and Basa, employees of the military, had an inside view of the actual machinery of colonial administration and control. The prejudice, corruption and injustice that pervaded the insular bureaucracy would form an integral part of their daily experience. In the absence of information on the individual motives underlying the separatist commitment of the Katipunan's directors, therefore, their common proximity to the educational, economic or administrative aspects of Spanish sovereignty itself seems to offer a partial explanation. The main burden of colonial rule may have fallen on less fortunate shoulders, but few were better placed to understand its workings and consequences than the leading Katipuneros.

In provincial areas where the Katipunan gained support the association's leaders occupied a position very much comparable to that of their counterparts in the capital. Again they belonged to intermediate social strata, and again they lived and worked at the interface between colonial power and the population. Many already held positions of prestige and influence in their respective towns prior to gaining distinction as revolutionists. Several were members of the principalia, the group formally recognized as the leading citizens of a town from whom the chief functionaries of pueblo and barrio government were elected. Others worked for the principalia as secretaries and interpreters. School teachers were also well represented. As a correlation between contact with the colonizers and revolutionary involvement existed in geographic as well as personal terms, the strategic position of Katipunan leaders at the forefront of local affairs and conflicts is perhaps best Illustrated by the example of Cavite, a

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province immediately south of Manila where both the secular and clerical aspects of Spanish rule were particularly conspicuous, and where the Katipunan gained its firmest organizational foothold.

Before reviewing some of the personalities who headed the Katipunan in Cavite, however, it is necessary to refer briefly to the structure of the colonial local government apparatus with which a large proportion were associated. The principalia who administered the affairs of each town and its related outlying settlements traced their origins to pre-Spanish community leaders whose authority had been recognized by the colonizers and utilized as the cornerstone of a system of indirect rule. From the conquest until the eve of Spanish rule the two key functionaries of this system were the cabezas de barangay and the gobernadorcillo. At the foot of the bureaucratic ladder and the immediate link between government and people, the cabezas de barangay had jurisdiction over a barrio or other unit of equivalent population. By far their most important function was tax-collection, first in the form of tribute and later as a cedula payment. In addition they were in charge of assigning the adult males within their jurisdiction to local public works projects in compliance with the requirement that every year each man should render forty days labor service to the community. Until 1893, it was past and present cabezas alone who constituted the principalia. As such, by a process of indirect election, they chose one of their number to hold the office of gobernadorcillo, known after 1890 as capitan municipal.

The prime duty of the gobernadorcillo was to supervise and coordinate the work of the cabezas with regard to tax collection and the assignment of community labor, but he had besides a wide range of additional responsibilities. These included the maintenance of peace and order; the exercise of judicial authority in petty civil and criminal cases; administration of the postal service; upkeep of the local jail; providing for the needs of travelers; and ensuring that the inhabitants had gainful employment and were good Catholics. To assist him in these multifarious tasks the gobernadorcillo had a host of elected, appointed and drafted assistants, among whom might be mentioned the tenientes mayors, fellow principales, variously designated to look after police matters, the boundaries of cultivated lands and the branding of livestock; a corps of cuadrilleros or constables staffed on a rotation basis from among the townsmen; and a directorcillo, usually a person with some college education and a knowledge of Spanish who worked in a paid capacity as interpreter and municipal clerk.⁴¹

Subsequently by far the most famous of the Caviteño principales who played a leading role in the Katipunan was Emilio Aguinaldo. In March 1897 Aguinaldo was to be elected president of the Revolutionary Government that succeeded the Katipunan as the directorate of the insurrection. His father, Aguinaldo recounted in his Memoirs, had been "regarded as one of the learned of the times and a brilliant lawyer."⁴² He was also a landowner and had served several times as town gobernadorcillo. After his elementary education, Emilio enrolled at San Juan de Letran, joining a number of brothers and sisters already studying in Manila. Before completing his college course, however, he returned to his home town of Cavite Viejo to help his widowed mother manage

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the family interests. Aguinaldo first entered the ranks of the principalia at the age of seventeen, becoming a cabeza de barangay, he later recalled, primarily because his mother saw the position as a means of avoiding military conscription.⁴³ After about eight years as a cabeza, in January 1895, he succeeded his elder brother Crispulo (who was also to become a revolutionary general) as a capitan municipal of his town. Emilio joined the Katipunan later the same year, travelling to Manila for initiation by Bonifacio and taking the nom de guerre of Magdalo, a name subsequently also applied to the Katipunan council which incorporated Cavite Viejo and other municipalities of eastern
Cavite. In late 1896, once the guardia civil had been cleared from a number of these towns, the Magdalo council was reorganized as a sub-provincial insurgent government, headed by a form of cabinet.⁴⁴ Elected as Magdalo president at this time was Baldomero Aguinaldo, a cousin of Emilio. Also a native of Cavite Viejo, Baldomero had attended the Ateneo Municipal and the University of Santo Tomas. Prior to the revolution he had worked in various capacities for the municipal bureaucracy, holding in succession the positions of registrador de titulos, directorcillo and justice of the peace.⁴⁶ At least two of the Aguinaldos' principal associates in the Cavite Viejo Katipunan, Candido Tirona and Santiago Dario, served under Emilio as cabezas de barangay.⁴⁸ Tirona, interestingly enough, came from a family long regarded as the chief rivals of the Aguinaldos in Cavite Viejo politics, but as more vital matters claimed their attention as well as that of their respective followers the petty factionalism of the past was set aside.⁴⁷ Shortly after the revolution began, Tirona was acclaimed as Emilio's successor, under revolutionary conditions, as capitan municipal. He was also appointed Minister of War in the reorganized Magdalo council. Another former cabeza in this council was Pio del Pilar, later a celebrated general.⁴⁸

In addition to Crispulo and Emilio Aguinaldo, a third member of the Magdalo Cabinet, Vito Belarmino, had had experience of the senior office of pueblo government, having held the post of gobernadorcillo in the town of Silang. His background was remarkably similar to that of Emilio Aguinaldo. His father, too, had in his time presided over the town tribunal and he also had for a time attended San Juan de Letran. Belarmino's formal education also had been cut short, in his case by recurrent outbreaks of cholera that disrupted life in the capital in the early 1880's. Prior to his election as gobernadorcillo he gained a wide knowledge of Silang affairs both as a cabeza and secretary of the tribunal.⁴⁸

Principales and men of comparable, social position also dominated the leadership of the Magdiwang, the Katipunan council that in the early months of the revolution acted as the sub-provincial insurgent government in the municipalities of western Cavite. Elected Magdiwang president was Mariano Alvarez, capitan municipal of Noveleta, the town in which the council was originally based. An uncle of Bonifacio's mother-in-law, Alvarez was one of the oldest of the revolutionary leaders of 1896, having been born in 1831.⁵⁰ Prior to joining the Katipunan his association with the cause of reform had spanned over at least two decades. In the same way as Emilio Aguinaldo and Vito

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Belarmino, he had acceded to municipal office virtually as a matter of family tradition, his father having served as Noveleta gobernadorcillo. His other qualifications for office, education at one of the friar-administered colleges in Manila and an apprenticeship in town politics as directorcillo, also conform to a now familiar pattern.⁵¹ By profession a school teacher, Alvarez was one of many of this calling who were active in the Cavite Katipunan. A second school teacher in the Magdiwang cabinet was Artemio Ricarte, a graduate of Letran and the Jesuit Escuela Normal.⁵²

As in the Manila sections of the Katipunan and in the Magdalo council in eastern Cavite, a number of Magdiwang leaders were linked by ties of kinship. Santiago and Pascual Alvarez, a son and nephew of Mariano, respectively held the posts of Magdiwang General-in-Chief and Secretary-General.⁵³ Two brothers from an "Illustrious family" of the town of Maragondon, Emiliano and Mariano Riego de Dios, both men with an extensive formal education, respectively occupied the positions of Minister of Commerce and Brigadier-General.⁵⁴ Completing the Magdiwang cabinet were Ariston Villanueva, a past gobernadorcillo of Noveleta, as Minister of War; Mariano Trias, a sugar planter and graduate of Letran, as Minister of Welfare and Justice; and Diego Mojica as Minister of Finance.⁵⁶

In one important respect the urban Katipuneros differed significantly from their provincial counterparts. The contrasting backgrounds of Bonifacio and Aguinaldo illustrate this point fairly well. However prominent Bonifacio might have become in the various merchant houses for whom he was employed, by the very nature of their operations advancement to positions of senior responsibility in such firms was all but precluded. Moreover, Bonifacio did not own land which was still the standard measure of wealth and power in the Islands. Aguinaldo, on the other hand, was an important landowner in his district and accordingly, had no social superior in his cultural and political milieu. Simply put, the advancement of Bonifacio's career depended largely upon his willingness and ability to carry out orders: Aguinaldo's class matrix demanded that he give them.

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[Notes]

(1) Calderon, Felipe G., "Memoirs of the Philippine Revolution” in Galang, Zoilo M. (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Philippines (Manila, Exequiel Floro) 1957, Vol. XV, p. 215.

(2) de los Reyes, lsabelo, La Religion del “Katipunan"(Madrid, Tip. Lit. de J. Corrales) 1900, pp. 30, 37.

(3) Agoncillo, Teodoro, The Revolt of the Masses (Quezon City, University of the Philippines Press) 1956, p. 1.

(4) Ibid, p. 283.

(5) Ibid, p. 282.

(6) de los Reyes, Isabelo, La Sensacional Memoria de Isabelo de los Reyes sobre la Revolution Filipina de 1896-97 (Madrid, Tip. Lit. de J. Corrales) 1899, p. 80, quoted in Agoncillo, Op. Cit. p. 106.

(7) El Renacimiento, August 11 and 18, Sept. 1 and 18, Oct. 1, 1906, quoted in LeRoy, Jamas A., “The Philippines 1860-1898 -- Some Comment and Bibliographical Notes” in Blair, Emma H., and James A. Robertson, The Philippine Islands 1493-1898 (Cleveland, Arthur C. Clark Co.) 1903, Vol. III, p. 185.

(8) Florentino Torres evidence submitted before the Second (Taft) Philippine Commission Report, p. 191.

[130]

(9) de los Reyes (1899) Op. Cit. p. 78; (1900) Op. Cit. p. 37.

(10) LeRoy, Loc. Cit.

(11) Zalde, Gregorlo F. History of the Katipunan (Manila, Loyal Press) 1939, p. 12.

(12) Agoncillo, Op. Cit. p.115.

(13) Ibid, pp. 107, 287.

(14) Ibid, pp. 107, 284-85.

(15) Ibid, pp. 116, 307.

(16) Majul, Cesar Adib, The Political end Constitutional Ideas of the Philippine Revolution (Quezon City, University of the Philippines Press) 1967, p. 135.

(17) Agoncillo, Op. Cit. pp, 283-84.

(18) Eminent Filipinos (Manila, National Historical Commission) 1965, p. 63; Zaide, Gregorio F. Great Filipinos in History (Manila, Verde Bookstore) 1957, p. 105. Constantino, Renato, A Past
Revisited (Manila, Tala Publications) 1976, p. 162.

(19) Agoncillo, Op. Cit. p. 66; Manuel, E. Arsenio, Dictionary of Philippine Biography (Quezon City, Filipiniana Publications) 1955, Vol. I, p. 253.

(20) Zaide, Op. Cit. p. 14.

(21) Agoncillo, Op. Cit. p. 66.

(22) Taylor, John R.M., The Philippine Insurrection Against the United States (Pasay City, Eugenio Lopez Foundation) 1971, Vol. 1, p. 62. This is the description used in Taylor's introduction.

(23) Olegario Diaz, Commander of the Manila detachment of the Guardia Civil, "Report Upon the Insurrection Against Spain," Oct. 28, 1896. In Retana, Wenceslao E. (ed.), Archivo del Bibliofilo Filipino (Madrid, X Minuesa de los Rios) 1897, p. 342.

(24) Agoncillo, Op. Cit. p. 66.

(25) Ibid, p. 66.

(26) de los Santos. Epifanio, The Revolutionists: Aguinaldo, Bonifacio, and Jacinto (Manila, National Historical Commission) 1973, p. 85. De los Santos, born in 1871, was studying in Manila at the time of the revolution. The essays on Bonifacio and Jacinto were first published in 1917-18.

(27) Foreman, John, The Philippine Islands, third ed. (London. Kelly & Walsh) 1906, p. 258.

(28) de Jesus, Gregoria, "Mga Tala ng Aking Buhay,” in Alzona, Encarnacion (ed.) Julio Nakpil and the Philippine Revolution (Manila, n.p.) 1964, p. 166.

(29) Ibid, p. 166.

(30) Guerrero, Leon Ma., The First Filipino (Manila, National Historical Commission) 1971, p. 315.

(31) Agoncillo, Op. Cit. p. 106.

(32) Ibid, p. 282. Here again Agoncillo seems to be following the account given by Isabelo de los Reyes, C.f. Sensacional Memoria, Op. Cit. p. 80.

(33) Manuel, Op. Cit. pp. 351-53.

(34) Ibid, pp. 154-56.

(35) Ibid, pp. 59-61.

(36) Ibid, pp. 92-94, Zaide, Op. Cit. p. 4.

(37) Manuel, Op. Cit. pp. 234-35.

2005-10-05T15:20:00.000-04:00

De Jesus, Gregoria. "Mrs. Andres Bonifacio's Letter to Emilio Jacinto Re Bonifacio's Arrest." In Revolt of the Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan, by Teodoro A. Agoncillo (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2002 [1956]), 394-8.

[394]

Appendix H:

Mrs. Andres Bonifacio's Letter to Emilio Jacinto Re Bonifacio's Arrest

Sila (ang mga taga Magdalo) ay nagdaos ng isang lihim na pulong at pinagpasyahang usigin siya at siya'y hamunin sa isang kagalitan, at kung siya'y mamuhi ay pagpapatayin sila o sila'y disarmahin at gapusin, (A. Bonifacio) na kasama ang kanyang mga kawal. Ng dumating ang mga kawal, sila ay nagpadala ng pasabi sa aming bahay na galing sa malayo, na isalong namin ang mga armas. Hindi namin inaalumana'y sila ay dumating, at ng sila'y malapit na sa aming bahay, kanilang kinubkod ang bahay at ang kanilang koronel ay pumanhik. Siya'y lumapit at itinanong kung saan siya patutungo; sumagot ang koronel at sinabing sila'y nagmamanmang patungo sa Indang; at sila'y naparaan sapagka't sila'y hindi pa nagaalmusal. Kanyang itinanong ang aming kalagayan at sinabing marahil ay kapos na kami ng mga pangangailangan. Sinabi naming hindi kami kinakapos at mabuti ang lagay namin dito kay sa Indang sapagka't may nagbibigay sa amin ng bigas na pinawa. Sumagat ang koronel: Mabuti ang kanilang kalagayan sa bayan sapagka't sila'y tumatanggap ng bigas na galing sa Naik, at kung iibigin ma'y magsama na tayo. Siya (ang aking asawa) ay sumagot: Ano ang aking gagawin sa Indang samantalang masama ang tingin

[395]

sa akin ng ating mga kapatid? Hindi na ibig man lamang na makita pa silang muli. Pagka sabi nito'y naghari sandali ang katahimikan, pagkaraa'y sila'y nag-agahan. Sila'y nagpaalam pagkatapos at sinabing gumagabi na at nangakong sila'y magbabalik na kasama ang kanilang mga kawal at dito maghahapunan. Samantalang sila'y umaalis, ang kanilang ginawa't pagdating sa labas ng aming kublihan upang iutos na iyon ay ipinid samantalang nagbibigay ng atas na ibinigay na sino mang sumuway ay makakapalit ang buhay. Yto ang utos ng ibinigay sa naturang kublihan na kanilang binantayan na kasama ang ilang kawal. Ng ang aming mga tauhan na kumukuha ng racion sa labas ng kublihan ay dumating. tinanggihan silang paraanin ng mga bantay. Pag karaa'y ipinagbigay alam ng mga taong di pinaraan ng mga bantay, at sa gayo'y nalaman namin kung ano ang nangyari. Tangi rito'y kanilang dinisarmahan ang aming mga kasamahan sa labas at kinuhang lahat ang mga lalaki. Dahil dito'y hinabol sila ng aking asawa upang itanong sa kanila kung bakit sila'y nagaasa1 ng gayon, nguni't sila'y hindi niya inabutan at yaong kasama nila ay nagbalik at naghintay na sila'y magbalik din upang itanong sa kanila kung sila'y gumagawa bilang pagsunod sa kanilang oficial. Sumapit ang gabi sa kanilang paghihintay. Kanilang inagaw ang mga babae at mga kasangkapan, ngunit isa sa mga babae ay nakatakas at nakapagsabi sa aming kawal na ang aming mga babae ay pinagdudukot. Ybig sanang umalis ng mga kawal upang humingi ng paliwanag, nguni't sila'y aming pinigil kaya't hindi sila lumayo sa labas ng kublihan, at sila'y naghintay na lamang doon. Ng kanyang malaman ang nangyari sa kanyang mga kasamahan, siya'y nagutos at nagpabalitang siya'y humihingi ng isang pagpupulong ng mga oficia1 sapagka't ang wika niya hindi nararapat na magkaroon sila ng pagaalit. Sinabi nila sa mga tagapagbalita na tumangi silang makipagpulong at mga punlo ang dapat na magkaroon ng karapatan na lumutas ng mga suliranin. Ang inutusang tagapagbalita ay nagbalik at ngayon ay naririto at buhay. Ng magmamada1ing araw ay nakarinig ng mga putok. Sila'y aking ginising at ng sila'y lumabas nasalubong niya ang isang kawal na nagsabi sa kanya na sila'y dumarating na napakarami at sila'y malapit na. Ng sila'y malapit, sila'y nagpaputok ng mabilis, at patuloy ang kanilang pakikihamok at kami'y kanilang kinubkob. Siya, sa kabila ng ganitong pangyayari, ay nagutos na huwag magpaputok ang kanyang mga tauhan; at ang aming

[396]

tao ay sumigaw: mga kapatid, huag kayong magpapaputok; sabihin ninyo kung ano ang inyong kailangan. Hindi sila nakinig; at ng kami ay nalalapit, kanilang pinaputukan ang aking asawa, at ng siya 'y nalugmok, siya'y kanilang pinagsasaksak at pinalo ng kulata ng kanilang baril. Ang aking bayaw na si Ciriaco ay inagaw ng dalawang tao at binaril hanggang sa mamatay. Si Procopio ay kanilang iginapos at pinalo ng rebolber. Kanilang inilagay ang mga sugatan sa hamaka at kanilang dinala sa bayan. Ng makita nilang ako'y lumabas sa pinagtaguan, ang oficia1 ng mga kawal ay tumakbo sa aking dako at pinipilit na sabihin ko kung saan nakatago ang salapi ng Cavite o ng Tesoreria. Kinuha nila ang aking revolver at ang kaunti naming salapi. Pagkatapos ay iginapos nila ako sa punung kahoy at pinipilit nilang ipagtapat ko sa kanila kung saan nakatago ang salapi na kanilang sinasabing nailak namin. Ang magkapatid ay makasasaksi sa bagay na ito, gayon din ang mga naninirahan dito na siyang nagdadala ng pagkain sa amin buan buan. Ng hindi makuha sa akin ang kanilang hinahanap, dinala nila ako sa Tribunal ng Indang at doon ay inalagaan ko ang lalaking sugatan ng kanilang hinubaran, pagkaraang kunin nila ang kanyang damit at siya'y kanilang balutin sa isang kumot. Ng ako'y lumapit, bahagya ng napagpala ko siya sapagka't ibig nilang gapusin ako at dalhin sa Naik, nguni't sa pakiusap ng iba ako'y pinalaya. Ng umaga, dinala kami ng mga kawal at kami'y pinagbalikbalik sa mga bayan ng Indang, Marigundong at Naik. Ay! mga kapatid ko. Ng kami'y bagong dating iniwan kami sa kusina ng bahay, sa paliguan ng mga pare at kami ay ipiniit sa tila tapunan ng mga bilango at tila hindi maaaring maabot ko pa siya, at ng ako'y magpumilit ay inilagay ako sa isang silid na may pagbabawal na makipagusap kahit kanino. At kanilang sinabi na kami ay pasasaksihin, pinakiusapan ko ang lahat ng General na bigyan kami ng justicia at kanilang sinabi na kung kanilang magagawa ay kanilang sisikaping bago kami pasaksihin ay tawagin ang ibang Puno at kami ay litisin sa gitna ng bayan sa harap nila. Sila'y pumayag sa aking pakiusap at sinabing ito'y makatarungan at sinabing ito'y hindi ginawa, at pagkaraan ng mahigit na isang Lingo, kami'y dinala sa Maragundon at kinunan kami ng mga patotoo ng ikatlong araw. Kanilang sinuhulan si Pedro Giron at kanilang tinuruang mabuti ng kanilang ibig ipasaksi sa kanya na siya (ang asawa ko) ay nag utos na silang lahat ay patayin.

[397]

Siya'y sumangayon sapagka't siya'y pinangakuan ng ililigtas, at bilang katuparan nito, siya'y pinaalis pagkatapos na siya'y makasaksi. Kaya, ng hilingin ng aking asawang humarap sa kanya, kanilang sinabi na si Giron ay napatay sa Naik. Bakit siya kasama nila ngayon? Ng matapos ang paglilitis, ipinagutos alinsunod sa kanila, ni Capitan Emilio na barilin ang asawa ko sa loob ng 24 na oras. Hindi man lamang nila pinahintulutang makapagtanggol sa kanyang sarili. Nakalipas ang ilang panahon at siya ay pinatawag; nguni't pagkaraan ng mga apat o limang araw ay iniutos ang pagpapatapon sa kanya. Nakalipas ang ilang araw, at ng ibigay ang hatol, itinanong sa ilan sa mga Puno kung ang laman ng hatol ay siyang katotohanan na kanilang sinagot na huag akong makinig sa bulungbulungan, at upang patotohanan ito, ang hukom na siyang may hawak ng usapin ay lumapit at sinabi sa akin huag akong mag alaala sapagkat wala pang nangyayari, at pagkatapos ay dumating... isang utos sa Capitang Kastila na sa ikatlong araw, ika walo ng gabi, samantalang malakas ang ulan, kanilang ilalabas na sapilitan sa bahay ang aking asawa. Hinanap ko ang komandante Lazaro Macapagal na siyang kumuha sa kanya, iyong tumupad ng mga utos na huag ang maysakit hanga't hindi tumitigil ang ulan o ilabas sa kinabukasan na ng umaga. Hindi niya gagawin ang gayon sa matuid na alinsunod sa kanya, ay utos ng kanyang Puno; nguni't sinabi niya sa akin na paroon ako sa bahay ni Capitan Emilio at makiusap sa kanya. Ako'y naparoon na kasama ang dalawang babae. Halos kinailangan namin na lumakad na apat-apat sa gitna ng dilim ng gabi at sa gitna ng malakas na ulan samantalang tumatawid kami sa ilog. Dumating kami sa bahay ni Emilio nguni't hindi kami makaakyat agad sapagka't kami ay basangbasa. Ng kami ay makapanhik si Emilio ay nagtago sa kanyang silid at sila'y pinagbilinang sabihin sa amin na siya'y maysakit at namamahinga; nguni't napansin kong siya'y nagigising at nakikipagusap kay Jocson. Ng si Jocson ay lumabas at lumapit kay Pedro Lipana na nagsasabing siya'y kalihim ni Emilio, siya'y lumapit sa akin at itinanong kung ano ang aking kailangan. Ipinakiusap ko na kung maaari ay huag lamang ialis ang maysakit hangang kinabukasan. Siya'y tumangi kaya't ako'y umalis upang makabalik; nguni't samantalang ako'y nananaog sinabi niyang maghintay kami at kami'y bibigyan ng sulat para sa mga tanod. Pagkasulat ng liham, kanyang ibinigay sa dalawang kawal na pinag utusang

[398]

samahan kami. Kailangang antalahin siya sa Tribunal at ako nama'y ikulong sa aming pagbabalik ng malayo sa bahay ng Pangulo. Nakipagtalo ako nguni't sinabi nilang babarilin ako at magbuhat sa sandaling iyon ay hindi pinahihintulutan ang sinomang lumapit sa akin. Ng tanghali ng sumunod na araw kanilang inilabas ang dalawang magkapatid; sa gawing hapon ay nagkaroon ng labanan sa labas ng bayan na malapit sa kinaroroonan ko at pinawalan nila ako. Ng ako'y makalaya naparoon ako sa kabilang ibayo upang siya'y hanapin, at nakasalubong ko na ang mga kumuha sa kanya. Dala nila ang mga damit na aking napaglimusan at ang gamot at ang kumot na aking ipinagbalot sa aking bayaw.

Ng aking hingin ang kanilang kinuha, kanilang sinabi na iniwan nila sa bundok, sa bahay ng isang tenyente. Ytinanong ko kung bakit dala nila ang mga damit sinabi nila sa akin na sinabi niya sa kanila na dalhin ko sa kanila ang damit na yaon. Ay! mga kapatid. Sila'y hinanap ko sa mga pook na kanilang itinuro at ng ako'y dumating sinabi sa akin na sila'y nasa ibang bundok na lubhang mataas. Dumating ako sa mataas na bundok na sinabi nguni't siya'y hindi ko nakita. At kami'y nagpatuloy ng paglalakad. Ay! mga kapatid. Kami'y hindi nagtigil ng paghanap sa kanya sa loob ng dalawang Lingo na nagpapahinga lamang kung gabi. Sapagka't hindi ko siya natagpuan at wala namang makapagsabi ng kanyang kinaroroonan, aming sinundan ang mga kawal nguni't ang mga kawal na ito'y nagkaila at kung anu anong pook ang itinuturo sa amin. Binuo na namin ang aming loob at ang aming balak ay makabalik ng sabihin sa amin ng isang amain ko ang katotohanan sapagka't siya ang nagbigay ng pagkain sa pook na hinintuan ng pangkat ng manunudla bago nila inialis sila.

Mapalad pa rin ako, mga kapatid, na manatiling buhay pa pagkaraan ng lahat ng aking dinanas. Kami'y nagpalibotlibot sa loob ng isang buan na walang kinakain kundi saging na hilaw. At kung ang aking kasamahan ay nagtagumpay na makuha sa pamamagitan ng kawangawa, ng isang dakot na bigas, kanilang isinasaing ito at ibinibigay nila sa akin. Ang damit ko sa katawan ay sira-sira na at napakarumi na hindi na masusunog kung ito man ay sigan.

(Lagda) Gregoria de Jesus
Lakanbini

2005-10-05T15:16:00.000-04:00

De Jesus, Gregoria. "Nostalgia." In Julio Nakpil and the Philippine Revolution, ed. and trans. Encarnacion Alzona. Manila, 1964. 177-81.

[177]

Nostalgia

The original poem in Tagalog has no title, but after reading it, we believe it can very well be titled Nostalgia. Perhaps Gregoria de Jesus, its author, had no time to polish it. Oriang, her pet name, is written at the end.

The following is an English version of it done by Professor Teodoro A. Agoncillo of the University of the Philippines.

Darling, ever since you left
Body and heart have been ill at ease
Slow is the flow of the blood in my veins
More so when I remember your kind treatment

Deep has been my sorrow
At your untimely departure and leaving me bereft
I had fears for what you will meet on the way
And, too, for your safety
I go to the window to peek

That in food you might be wanting
Hours you might pass in hunger
Dire illness might overtake you
About which you always complain to me.

Where will this situation lead
The body is too small for the deep sorrow
Uneasy am I when myself I enjoy and eat
When seated and standing my thoughts are of you

At the same time saying, "Suffer, my body,
To you happiness is yet incomplete
Comfort is just beginning to come
When, at once, I thought of leaving you."

And at night I lie me down on the mat
Sleepy eyes at once will close
In my sleep you are my dream, my Sweet,
Tears I could not control fall down

In the morning I rise slowly
My hand holds my aching heart
Into the dangerous place you had gone

After peeking I would go out
To the low dining table
When I see the place where you used to sit
My breast would break, my breathing slow

I keep my sorrow to myself
I could not express to my companions
You have made my heart suffer
Your sweet parting word, "Suffer, my love."

[178]

To me your sincere advice
Look for happiness and console your heart
I enjoy myself for a moment, then at once I cease
I think what had happened to you

My head I would bow, my tears would fall
I become uneasy, my walk slow
I enter the small room, carefully I prepare
The clothes I would wear when I leave

You will forget this pitiable one
Whose life will cross the sea
Sickness at departure, to suffering I go
Your day of happiness will rise in the end.

I'm leaving like the smoke
When the white goes up, I'm like a cobweb
My only advice, remember, my love,
Do not tear our secret open

Farewell to you who love so well
Master of my heart and half of my body.
Farewell now this one you treated so kindly
Farewell, loved one, to you farewell

With happiness to you I bestow
The handkerchief that wipes away tears
If perchance I meet with misfortune, my life ends
Dead though I may be yet will I meet with you

Today, 31 August 1897. -- 0riang

"Gladly to you I will offer
The narrative poem when I sailed the seas,
Read for a moment and don't be impatient
So you'll know its contents."

There was once, in Pasig, a couple in love
The girl thought of sailing the sea,
She called a calesa, at once she rode in
And she went at once to the barrio of Bangbang.

After resting at once she was invited
By an acquaintance of long standing
Without much ado she accepted in order to cure
Her fever, the malaise she was feeling.

Upon going up the house she at once told
The one who extended the invitation, who was weak,
The latter stood up and prepared the bed
And said to her: "Do go to bed."

[179]

When she lay down imagine her sadness:
Sorrow her mat, lament her pillow;
Grief her covering, so weak she could not move,
The tears in her eyes she allowed to flow

In the morning, at the break of dawn,
She ordered one of the companions
To go out immediately
To look where the loved one had gone

The one ordered set out at once
In search of the loved one spoken about
Not long after she returned,
To her she appeared with joy.

Slowly she told her:
"Banish now your uneasiness,
Your loved one and darling is,
It seems to me, all right and safe.

This one to whom she was talking
Set her mind at ease;
She told her companion
To look for a vehicle they would ride in.

Slowly they walked again
Her illness has not diminished
And they stopped at a store
Near the river which was a resting place.

When they had stopped there came
An acquaintance from whom they would seek information,
With difficulty she stood up and at once approached
And asked where he came from.

In the course of their conversation she mentioned
The dangers the loved one passed through,
Her past grief at once returned
And deepened, and her breathing became difficult.

Not long after there came also
Five treacherous enemies;
Her heartbeat became faster
Because of the sufferings experienced.

The vehicle arrived and she wanted to board it
She could not lift her feet, as if with weight
She wanted to turn back, but was undecided
Because her other companions were already on board.

Her condition made her look like a child
And had herself earried to the barge,
Inside she rested
And then she climb to the top

[180]

Here she sat and spent the whole night
In the cold dew and under the moonlight
She suffered the said coldness,
The town she loved she refused to desert.

What shall she do even if she weeps
Nothing will come out of her lonely love
When she looked back, when she cast her eyes
She found herself in the middle of a wide sea.

The fast sailing was no little matter
The beloved town at once was left behind,
When she remembered the loved one left behind
Her breast would burst, her life would ebb.

When she reached the middle of the wide sea
Slowly to the cabin she went down
She lay down on the mat
And she wept ceaselessly.

It was not long when morning came again
The boat stopped at the town of Biñan,
They hired a banca and then they boarded it
And asked that they be brought to San Pedro Tunasan.

When she arrived here needless to say
All offered grief and happiness
The said grief was no other than
Innuendoes reserved for her.

Happily they told her
Banish your grief,
"Though I wish, my Love, to banish grief
I cannot for I'm surrounded by sorrows."

Needless to say in the morrow
They had someone from Pasig sent;
Her sorrows deepened all the more
Always uneasy and weak.

"Slowly I bring out the picture you gave
Tears will flow, then look intensely at you
Accompanied with my sighs
With the words, 'Suffer all this.'

After looking at you the picture will be covered
And hidden in the place where it was taken
She would wipe the tears from her eyes
Her heart's grief she could not hold back.

"If I look for happiness, I'm ignored
The pain of my heart predominates
No one but you are the cause
The balm of your medicine to me you apply."

[181]

"In you lies the joy that will make me happy
In you lies the sorrow that will make me cry
In you also lies the good treatment
And in you lies my eternal happiness."

If one thinks of marriage
Serious and difficult if one thinks of it ,
When the moment of trouble comes
At the short separation, sorrow sets in.

San Pedro Tunasan, September, 97 -- Oriang

2005-10-05T15:13:00.000-04:00

Bonifacio, Andres. "Huling Paalam ni Dr. Jose Rizal." In The Writings and Trial of Andres Bonifacio, trans. Teodoro A. Agoncillo and S. V. Epistola (Manila: Antonio J. Villegas; Manila Bonifacio Centennial Commission; University of the Philippines, 1963), 78-80.

[78]

Huling Paalam ni Dr. Jose Rizal

Pinipintuho kong Bayan ay paalam
lupang iniirog ng sikat ng araw
mutyang mahalaga sa dagat Silangan
kaluwalhatiang sa ami'y pumanaw.

Masayang sa iyo'y aking idudulot
ang lanta kong buhay na lubhang malungkot;
maging maringal man at labis alindog
sa kagalingan mo ay aking ding handog.

Sa pakikidigma at pamimiyapis
ang alay ng iba'y ang buhay na kipkip
walang agam-agam, maluwag sa dibdib
matamis sa puso at di ikahapis.

Saan man mautas ay di kailangan,
cipres o laurel, lirio ma'y putungan
pakikipaghamok at ang bibitayan
yaon ay gaon [?] din kung hiling ng Bayan.

Ako'y mamamatay ngayong namamalas
na sa kasilanganan ay namamanaag
yaong maligayang araw na sisikat
sa likod ng luksang nagtabing na ulap.

Ang kulay na pula kung kinakailangan
na maitina sa iyong liwayway
dugo ko'y isabog at siyang ikinang
ng kislap ng iyong maningning na ilaw.

Ang aking adhika sapul magkaisip
ng kasalukuyang bata pang maliit,
ay ang tanghaling ka at minsang masilip
sa dagat Silangan hiyas na marikit.

Natuyo ang luhang sa mata'y nunukal,
taas na ang noo't walang kapootan,
walang bakas kunot ng kapighatian
gabahid man dungis niyang kahihiyan.

[79]

Sa kabuhayang ko ang laging gunita
maningas na aking ninanasa-nasa
ay guminhawa ka ang hiyaw ng diwa
pag hingang papanaw ngayong biglang bigla.

Ikaw'y guminhawa laking kagandahang
ako'y malugmok, at ikaw ay matanghal,
hininga'y malagot, mabuhay ka lamang
bangkay ko'y masilong sa iyong kalangitan.

Kung sa libingang ko'y tumubong mamalas
sa malagong damo mahinhing bulaklak,
sa mga labi mo'y mangyaring ilapat,
sa kaluluwa ko halik ay igawad.

At sa aking noo nawa'y iparamdam,
sa lamig ng lupa ng aking libingan,
ang init ng iyong pag hingang dalisay
at simoy ng iyong pag giliw na tunay.

Bayaang ang buwan sa aki'y ititig
ang liwanag niyang lamlam at tahimik,
liwayway bayaang sa aki'y ihatid
magalaw na sinag at hanging hagibis.

Kung sakasakaling bumabang humantong
sa kruz ko'y dumapo kahit isang ibon
doon ay bayaang humuning hinahon
at dalitin niya payapang panahon.

Bayaan ang ningas ng sikat ng araw
ula'y pasingawin noong kainitan,
magbalik sa langit ng boong dalisay
kalakip ng aking pagdaing na hiyaw.

Bayaang sinoman sa katotong giliw,
tangisan maagang sa buhay pagkitil;
kurig tungkol sa akin ay may manalangin
idalangin Bayan yaring pagka himbing.

Idalanging lahat yaong nangamatay,
nangagtiis hirap na walang kapalaran
mga ina naming walang kapalaran
na inahihibik ay kapighatian.

Ang mga bao't pinapangulila,
ang mga bilanggong nagsisipagdusa,
dalanginin namang kanilang makita
ang kalayaan mong ikagiginhawa.

[80]

At kung sa madilim na gabing mapanglaw
ay lumaganap na doon sa libinga't
tanging mga patay ang nangaglalamay,
huag bagabagin ang katahimikan.

Ang kanyang hiwaga'y huag gambalain
kaipala'y maringig doon ang taginting,
tunog ng gitara't salterio'y magsaliw,
ako, Bayan, yao't kitay aawitin.

Kung ang libingan ko'y limot na ng lahat
at wala ng kruz at batong mabakas,
bayaang linangin ng taong masipag
lupa'y asarolin at kanyang ikalat.

Ang mga buto ko ay bago matunaw
mauwi sa wala at kusang maparam,
alabok ng iyong latak ay bayaang
siya ang babalang doo'y makipisan.

Kung magka gayon na'y aalintanahin
na ako sa limot iyong ihabilin
pagka't himpapawid at ang panganorin
mga lansangan mo'y aking lilibutin.

Matining na tunog ako sa dingig mo,
ilaw, mga kulay, masamyong pabango,
ang ugong at awit, pag hibik sa iyo,
pag asang dalisay ng pananalig ko.

Bayang iniirog, sakit niyaring hirap,
Katagalugang kong pinakaliliyag,
dinggin mo ang aking pagpapahimakas;
diya'y iiwan ko sa iyo ang lahat.

Ako'y patutungo sa walang busabos,
walang umiinis at verdugong hayop;
Pananalig doo'y di nakasasagot,
si Bathala lamang doo'y haring lubos.

Paalam, magulang at mga kapatid
kapilas ng aking kaluluwa't dibdib
mga kaibigan bata pang maliit
sa aking tahanan di na masisilip.

Pag pasalamatan at napahinga rin,
paalam estranherang kasuyo ko't aliw,
paalam sa inyo mga ginigiliw,
mamatay ay siyang pagkagupiling.

2005-10-05T15:12:00.000-04:00

Bonifacio, Andres. "The Cazadores." In The Writings and Trial of Andres Bonifacio, trans. Teodoro A. Agoncillo and S. V. Epistola (Manila: Antonio J. Villegas; Manila Bonifacio Centennial Commission; University of the Philippines, 1963), 11-12.

[11]

The Cazadores*

The cazadores were sent here
allegedly to eradicate lawlessness,
but it is not fight they seek,
but chickens and cattle to steal.

The people who are living in peace,
to the Spaniards they are sent,
anything they see that can be eaten,
they grab like hungry ones.

They comb the whole house
for money which they pocket,
so also are the jewels and chosen clothes,
as unto the chick snatched by the hawk.

To the women they find,
their first greetings are shameful,
they do not respect even so little
the spotless honor the women possess.

And the tomatoes, watermelons,
melons and other things for sale,
nothing remains because of the grabbing
of the Spaniards.

*Cazadores, literally, hunters. In the Philippine setting, the cazadores were Spaniards charged with the duty of maintaining peace and order. As such they aided the guardias civiles (civil guards) and tne municipal police force in the enforcement of laws.

[12]

All the milk vendors they see
promptly are scolded,
and the hare-brained [Spaniards] gulp [the milk],
and so nothing is spared [by the Spaniards].

The name "cazadores" is a misnomer,
it should be "sacadores" instead,*
for the promontory is far and distant,
indeed they are known to be greedy and cowardly.**

*Bonifacio made a good play of words in the use of "cazadores" and "sacadores", utilizing metathesis to drive home his point. Sacadores means extortionists, from the wordbase sacar, to sack, to extort.

**The last line of the original reads: "mandi halatan malakaw at duwag". The line, at first glance, seems meaningless, owing to the use of the words "mandi" and "halalan", which do not exist in the Tagalog lexicon. But "mandi" must have been a typographical error, and should read "mandin", while "halatan" should read "halatang", from "halala", known or that which is seen through.

2005-10-04T15:44:00.000-04:00

Constantino, Renato. “Historical Truths from Biased Sources.” In The Philippine Insurrection Against the United States: A Compilation of Documents with Notes and Introduction, by John R. M. Taylor. Pasay City: Eugenio Lopez Foundation, 1971. ix-xii.

[ix]

Historical Truths from Biased Sources
by Renato Constantino

History continues to be enriched by new discoveries and new analyses. New truths are unfolded by developing viewpoints that reflect man's changing outlook and goals in each historical stage. There is no source, no matter how biased, that does not yield a bit of historical truth. No attempt at misrepresentation can escape ultimate exposure when a people who make their history critically examine the roles of individuals and groups in particular epochs. It is with this attitude that one should read John Roger Meigs Taylor's The Philippine Insurrection against the United States: A Compilation of Documents with Notes and Introduction.

Like the old chronicles written by Spaniards, Taylor's history is biased in favor of the colonizer but rich in data and revelations essential to a rediscovery and reassessment of Philippine history. The period Taylor covers is still relatively unknown to a majority of Filipinos. What we know contains so many distortions that it has produced attitudes which impede the correct handling of current problems.

A thorough study of the past will produce a new consciousness of the present. This new understanding will lead to a clearer view of the future which necessarily involves an alteration and a transformation of the present. It is time, therefore, to accelerate our rediscovery of history in order that we may profit from it. More and more, we are experiencing a tension between our consciousness and the reality of our existence. A study of our past as it really happened will reveal that this discrepancy is the result of a carefully developed set of assumptions that took firm root in our consciousness and became a tremendous force distorting our national life and preventing us from correctly assessing present reality.

We see our present with as little understanding as we view our past because aspects of the past which could illumine the present have been concealed from us. This concealment has been effected by a systematic process of miseducation characterized by a thoroughgoing inculcation of colonial values and attitudes -- a process which would not have been so effective had we not been denied access to the truth and to part of our written history. As a consequence, we have become a people without a sense of history. We accept the present as given, bereft of historicity. Because we have so little comprehension of our past, we have no appreciation of its meaningful interrelation with the present.

We lost our history for the first time when the Spaniards, with their fanatical belief in the superiority of their civilization, destroyed the tan-

[x]

gible manifestations of our pre-Spanish culture. At a time when we were proving to the world the reality of our nationhood and our capacity for self-rule by ousting a colonial master and resisting the aggression of another, we lost another part of our history. Our records were captured from us. Tons of “insurgent” records were shipped to Washington, there to remain unread for over half a century except by those to whom permission was granted by the U.S. Adjutant General of the Army. Thus this phase of our history is still relatively unexplored. We have fragments of knowledge about this period from the writings of those who have seriously endeavored to elicit the truth from the inadequate materials at hand, but on the whole we are still relatively ignorant of what really happened. This ignorance has been compounded by our acceptance of a version of our history consonant with colonial policy.

John Roger Meigs Taylor graduated from West Point in 1889 and was commissioned as captain ten years later. Cited for his service during the Boxer Rebellion in China, he was subsequently assigned to the Philippines to collect military intelligence material. Taylor himself gives us the background for the instructions regarding the shipment of the Philippine "State papers" to Washington:

In 1899 General Otis, Military Governor of the Philippines turned over to me, in Manila, several boxes of original documents which had just been captured from the insurgents and directed me to go over them and select and translate such material therein as would inform the War Department and through it, the Senate of the real character and purposes of the movement against the United States. I carried out these instructions.

In 1901 I returned to the United States and was ordered to report to the Adjutant General to act really as a channel of communication between the War Department and certain Senators who were defending on the floor of the Senate, the conduct of the administration with respect to the Philippines. By verbal orders I was assigned to temporary duty in the Insular Bureau. There, in 1902, I suggested that in place of depending upon my recollection and personal knowledge of the situation and papers which recorded it, it would be well to write a history of the relations of the United States with the Philippines and in default of anyone else, I suggested that I should write it. The Secretary of War agreed to this and the authorities in the Philippines were ordered to forward all captured Insurgent records to the Insular Bureau for my use…

In the Army's view, Taylor's acquaintance with the captured documents of the Revolution made him the person best qualified to defend the military administration in the Philippines. Mounting criticism in the United States of the government's imperialist venture made such a defense imperative. It was therefore as a "quasi-lobbyist" that he was assigned to Washington and it was this assignment that caused him to decide to write “a history of the relations of the United States with the Philippines." His project readily received official approval and the Army extended him all cooperation. All captured documents were loaned by the Army to the Bureau of Insular Affairs where Captain Taylor was detailed indefinitely until he completed his project.

Taylor worked conscientiously on the voluminous historical material -- an estimated three tons of records -- and on June 30, 1903 he was able to
[xi]

report that the documents he had selected for translation and examination were in 2,034 folders. Each folder contained from 1 to 12 documents. He had read and analyzed about 12,204 items.

He began his arduous task of translation and annotation in 1902 and completed it in 1906. The first volume contains an introductory narrative with 105 translated exhibits. It begins with an account of the origins of the revolt against Spain and ends with the pact of Biac-na-bato. The second volume continues the narrative for the period 1898 to 1902 describing the relations between Aguinaldo and Dewey and the progress of the war .The remaining three volumes contain 1,430 exhibits. However, when the galley proofs of Taylor's painstaking work were ready, William Howard Taft who was then Secretary of War ordered the publication withheld and, while giving Taylor permission to correct the proof of the documents, he instructed the author to leave the history "for our correction." One wonders what "corrections" of our history he intended to make. Taft who was then running for President limited himself to this curt statement: "One of the things I do not wish to do is to have the matter published before Congress meets, or rather before the election, for I don't care to give it out as an election document." Prof. John T. Farrell, who wrote an enlightening account of the Taylor project and its suppression, hints at a possible motive for Taft's decision:

Should the educated Filipinos, who made up the loyal and pro-American faction, have had reason to consider themselves insulted, and should the out-and-out independence party in the Islands have gained an issue out of the publication of a work from the insular bureau, which was anything but complimentary to the quondam insurgents' motives and conduct during the period of revolution, a serious crisis might have followed and one which would have seriously embarrassed the administration.

Taylor's history, for all that it reflects the American point of view may indeed have proved controversial at the time. For one thing, it furnished data on the tactics and purposes of those Americans who had been charged with the task of suppressing the Filipino movement for independence. Taft who despite his image as the friend of the Filipinos was in reality a shrewd, far-sighted imperialist might have wanted to "correct" certain parts that exposed too clearly America's real intentions toward the Philippines. For another, Taylor's history uncovered certain unpalatable truths about some leaders of the Philippine Revolution against Spain and the resistance against America. Many of the ilustrado leaders were then already collaborating enthusiastically with the Americans and were being built up by the latter as leaders of the Filipino people under the new dispensation.

When Taft was elected President there was a renewed attempt to have the Taylor work published. The manuscript was unfortunately submitted to James LeRoy, Taft's former private secretary who was himself writing a book on the same period but based largely on secondary sources. As a consequence, the Taylor book was not published while LeRoy's book was published posthumously in 1914. Farrell writes on this point:

[xii]

To one who has had the opportunity to compare the Taylor history with the work of LeRoy which was published in 1914, it is obvious that the invalid (LeRoy) in Fort Bayard Hospital must have been considerably shocked when he read, in December, 1908, something based upon original sources which was so much at variance with what he himself was writing, and which, in turn, was based mainly upon American and Spanish published literature, especially upon reports of government officials, plus his own first hand experience in working with Filipinos.

"The Americans in the Philippines" by LeRoy became an "authoritative" work in Philippine history, whereas Taylor's work remains to this day largely unread. No one knows just how many galley sets were completed. According to Farrell, there is a very well preserved set in the files of the Bureau of Insular Affairs and the Library of Congress has one too. One set went to the headquarters of the Philippine Constabulary, another was sent to the Archives of the Philippines during the administration of Governor Wood, and still another to the library of the University of Michigan. The microfilms of these galleys constitute the basis of this printed work. Although scholars have worked on these microfilms, the tediousness of micro-reading has undoubtedly hampered scholarship. For the first time, scholars can read this work with the convenience of reading printed matters.

But these microfilms contain only part of the thousands of original documents known as the Philippine Insurgent Records which were filed in the Archives in Washington until, by a legislative act of July 3, 1957, they were turned over to the Philippines. No one knows how many documents were lost or are unidentifiable for these documents suffered many physical transfers and a great deal of reclassification had to be made. At present they are still in process of classification in the Philippine National Library. The complete set of these records can be found in Microscopy No. 254 of the U. S. National Archives.

Taylor's anti-Filipino bias and the circumstances under which his work was undertaken detract from the value of his work. However, his access to the original documents gave him valuable information not open to others. This gave him certain insights into the motivations and behavior of the leaders of the Philippine Revolution which deserve serious study. On the whole, however, this publication of Taylor's “The Philippine Insurrection against the United States" has been undertaken primarily to make available to Philippine scholars a part of the voluminous file of original documents of the Philippine Revolution. It is hoped that similar projects will be undertaken in the near future so that Filipinos may have easy access to that part of their history that has been withheld from them for so many years.